LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


THE    PRINCE    DE    LIGNE 

HIS    MEMOIRS,  LETTERS,  AND 
MISCELLANEOUS    PAPERS 


VOLUME  II 


c 


^^Ji^/yi4e^»^i}n-e^yjr 


OLD    FRENCH   COURT    MEMOIRS 

THE 

PRINCE    DE    LIGNE 

HIS  MEMOIRS,  LETTERS,  AND 
MISCELLANEOUS  PAPERS 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOLUME  II 


WITH  INTRODUCTION  AND  PREFACE.  BY 
C.-A.  SAINTE-BKDVE  AND  MADAMB  DE  STABL-HOLSTEIN 

TRANSLATED    BY   KATHARINE    PRESOOTT    WQRMELKT 
ILLUSTRATED  WITH  PORTRAITS  FROM  THE  ORIGINAL 


VOLUME    VII 


NEW    YORK 

BRENTANO'S 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,   1899 
By  Hardy,  Pratt  &  Company 

All  Rights  Reseiz'ed 


Printed  in  ttie 
United  States  of  America 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. —  1786-1787. 

Page 
The  Journey  to  tlie  Crimea.  —  Letters  to  Prince  de  Ligne  from 

Empress    Catherine    about    journey    to    Crimea.  —  Prince's 
acceptance  of  invitation  to  accompany  her  on  journey   .      .  1 

CHAPTER   II.  —  1786-1787. 

The  Journey  to  the  Crimea  (Continued).  —  The  Prince's  let- 
ters to  the  Marquise  de  Coigny  descriptive  of  his  won- 
drous journey  to  the  Crimea.  —  Tartar  fidelity.  —  Prophecy 
of  Revolution 23 

CHAPTER  III.  — 1787-1788. 

The  War  of  Russia  and  Austria  against  Turkey.  —  Account 
of  how  the  Turkish  War  was  brought  on.  —  Letters  to 
Joseph  II.  —  Letters   to  Comte  de  Segur 45 

CHAPTER  IV.  —  1788-1789. 

The  Turkish  War  (Continued).  —  Letters  to  Segur.  —  Letters 
to  Joseph  11.  —  Letter  to  Catherine  II.  taking  leave.  — 
Her  reply.  —  Leaves  Russian  Service.  —  Capture  of  Ocza- 
kow. — Letter  from  Empress  Catherine 71 

CHAPTER  v.  — 1789-1790. 

The  Turkish  War  (Continued).  —  Campaign  of  the  siege  of 
Belgrade.  —  Siege  and  taking  of  Belgrade.  —  Misunder- 
standing with  Joseph  II.  —  Death  of  Joseph  II.  —  End 
of   Prince's   military    service 101 

CHAPTER  VI.  — 1790. 

Vienna.  —  Joseph  II.  —  Hainault.  —  Letter  to  Catherine  II.  on 
death  of  Joseph  II.  —  Return  to  Low  Countries.  —  Speech 
to  States-General.  —  Alienation  from  the  next  two  emper- 
ors. —  Their  letters.  —  His  view  of  causes  of  French  Revo- 
lution. —  Letter   to   '-Louis   Segur  " 124 

Ver.  7—1  ^^"^- 


IV  CONTENTS. 

Page 

CHAPTER  VII.  —  1790-1792. 

Beloeil.  —  French  Revolution.  —  Casanova.  —  Republican  French 
Army.  —  Letter  from  Empress  Catherine.  —  His  reply.  — 
Prince  innocent  cause  of  massacres  at  Lyons.  —  Portrait 
of  Giovanni  Casanova  and  sketch  of  his  history      .      .      .      148 

CHAPTER  VIII.  —  1735-1795, 

Prince  de  Ligne's  family  history.  —  Parentage  and  titles.  —  Re- 
lations -with  his  children.  —  Letters  to  his  son.  —  Relations 
with  his  wife.  —  Family  life  at  Beloeil.  —  Anguish  at 
Son's  death.  —  Letter  from  Empress  on  that  sorrow.  — 
Beloeil  lost  but  protected  during  first  occupation  of  Bel- 
gium by  the  French 173 

CHAPTER  IX.  —  1793-1800. 

"My  Refuge"  in  Vienna:  The  Empress  Catherine.  —  Beloeil 
restored  by  Napoleon  in  1804  to  Prince's  second  son,  Louis. 
—  His  "Refuge."  —  His  Works.  —  Letters  to  Empress. — 
Her  replies  and  last  letter.  —  Her  death.  —  Prince's  por- 
trait of  her 202 

CHAPTER  X.  —  1800-1809. 

Last  years  in  Vienna.  —  Causes  of  his  non-employment  in  the 
wars  against  Napoleon.  —  Received  by  Frederick  William 
III.  at  Potsdam  and  Berlin.  —  Reminiscence  of  Courts  he 
has  seen.  —  Last  reflections.  —  Picture  of  last  years  con- 
tinued  from  this   point   by   others 230 

CHAPTER  XL  — 1814. 

Congress  of  Vienna.  —  Description  of  Prince  by  Comte  de  La 
Garde  during  Congress  of  Vienna.  —  Description  of  his 
"  Refuge."  —  Poem  on  the  Congr^s  d' Amour.  —  Illness, 
death   and   funeral 261 

CHAPTER  XIL 
Hia  "Scattered  Thoughts" 293 


Index 321 


LIST    OF 
PHOTOGRAVURE    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Catherine  II.,  Empress  of  Russia Frontispiece 

By  Lampi;    in  the  Romanoff'  galler_y;   Winter  Palace, 
St.  Petersburg. 
Chapter  Page 

II.     Stanislas  Poxiatowski,  King  of  Poland 26 

By  Mnie.  Vigt'e-Lebrun;  in  the  Louvre. 

IV.    Prince  Potemkin 74 

By  Leritzki;  in  the  Imperial  Library  at  St.  Petersburg. 

V.    Marechal  Loudon  (or  Laudohn) 104 

In  the  Imperial  gallery,  Vienna. 

VI.    Belceil,  ChAteau  and  Moat 138 

From  a  photograph  given  by  the  Prince  de  Ligne. 

VII.     The  Comte  d'Artois,  Charles  X 150 

School  of  the  XVIIIth  century;  in  the  Louvre. 

VIII.     The  Princesse  Hel^ine  Massalska 176 

By  Mme.  Vig('e-T.,ehrun.     Tliis  portrait  is  mentioiied  by  tlie  Prin- 
cess in  her  letters;  the  original,  or  a  copy,  is  in  the  Berlin  gallery. 

VIII.     Belceil,  Forest  and  Fountain 186 

From  a  photograph  given  by  the  Prince  de  Ligne. 

IX.     Peter  the  Great,  Emperor  of  Russia 224 

Painter  unknown;  in  the  KomanoiT  gallery;    Winter  Palace,  St. 

Petersburg. 

X.     Louisa,  Queen  of  Prussia 234 

By  Grass! ;  in  the  Hohenzolleni  Museum,  Berlin. 


Tl                       LIST   OF  PHOTOGRAVURE    ILLUSTRATIONS. 
Chapter  Paqb 

X.     Paul  I.,  Emperor  of  Russia 241 

Painter  unknown;  in  the  Winter  Palace,  St.  Petersburg 

XL    Alexander  I.,  Emperor  of  Russia 280 

By  David  (Jacques-Louis);   in  the  Romanof!  gallery,  St.  Peters- 
burg. 

XL     Frederick-William  III.,  King  of  Prussia 292 

In  the  Hohenzollern  Museum,  Berlin. 


MEMOIR 


OF 


CHARLES-JOSEPH,  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 


I. 

1786-1787. 
THE  JOURNEY  TO  THE  CRIMEA. 

[Early  in  1786  the  Empress  Catherine  determined  to 
make  a  journey  through  her  newly  acquired  dominion  of 
the  Crimea,  otherwise  called  the  Greek  Kingdom  of  Bosporus, 
ruled  by  Tartar  khans,  but  a  dependency  of  Turkey,  which 
ceded  it  to  Eussia  in  1783.  This  journey  was  intended  to 
be,  and  was,  a  triumphal  progress,  and  the  empress  wrote  to 
the  Prince  de  Ligne  inviting  him  to  accompany  her.  Delays 
occurred,  so  that  the  start  was  not  made  till  January,  1787, 
when  the  empress  left  Czarsko-zelo,  attended  by  the  principal 
personages  of  her  Court,  and  accompanied  by  the  ambassa- 
dors of  France,  Austria,  and  England,  namely :  Comte  Louis- 
Philippe  de  Segur,  Comte  Cobenzl,  and  Mr.  Fitz-Herbert, 
afterwards  Lord  St.  Helens.  Prince  Potemkin  took  charge 
of  the  arrangements  and  directed  everything.  The  Sovereign 
of  Austria,  Joseph  II.,  was  invited  to  join  the  empress,  and 
did  so  at  Kherson.  The  King  of  Poland,  Stanislas  Ponia- 
towski,  met  her  on  the  way.  The  Prince  de  Ligne  wrote  a 
series  of  letters  descriptive  of  this  wondrous  journey  to  the 
Mar(juise  de  Coigny,  who  shared  them  with  his  other  friends 


2  MEMOIR  OF  THE  TRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

at  the  French  Court,  where  they  created  such  interest  and 
were  so  much  talked  about  that  they  have  since  remained 
his  best  known  and  oftenest  quoted  piece  of  writing. 

The  following  is  the  prince's  reply  to  the  empress's  invita- 
tion to  accompany  her.  In  her  letter  of  invitati(jn  she  offered 
him  certain  lands  in  her  new  territory.] 

The  Prince  de  Ligne  to  H.  I.  Majesty  the 
Empress  Catherine. 

Vienna,  February  15,  1786. 

Madame,  —  I  have  possessed  for  one  week  the  letter 
which  does  me  the  greatest  honour  and  gives  me  the  greatest 
joy  of  my  life.  I  have  kissed  it  a  thousand  times,  because 
the  heart  can  see  without  the  help  of  eyes.  Blinded  as 
I  am  for  a  time  like  Milton  and  Homer,  —  though  not  as 
mad  as  the  one  nor  as  garrulous  as  the  other,  —  I  recover,  in 
order  to  express  my  thanks  to  your  Imperial  Majesty,  I 
recover  my  sight,  of  which  a  terrible  influenza  had  deprived 
me. 

No  one  has  disputed  my  birthplace,  as  tliey  have  that  of 
the  bard  of  an  old  wooden  horse,  and  no  one  can  doubt  about 
the  place  of  my  death,  which  will  surely  be  at  the  feet  of 
your  Majesty,  from  joy,  excess  of  feeling,  and  gratitude,  on 
the  scene  of  your  triumphs  and  beneficence.  For  myself,  I 
much  prefer  being  a  victim  to  those  emotions  to  being,  like 
Iphigenia,  that  of  the  bigotry  of  my  grandfathers. 

However,  as  we  do  not  really  die  of  such  sentiments,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  live  upon  them,  I  shall  hope  for  an  even  finer 
death,  —  if,  for  instance,  in  the  midst  of  our  journey  in  Taurica, 
that  superb,  triumphal  progress  of  your  Majesty,  some  Tartar 
barbarian  should  disturb  joxvc  fUcshy  making  an  incursion, 
and  mine  should  be  the  happiness  to  repulse  the  hated  horde 
aad  buy  with  my  blood  before  the  eyes  of  your  Majesty  a 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  3 

little  victory.     What  joy  to  fight  for  hearth  and  sovereign 
three  thousand  leagues  from  home  and  in  Her  presence ! 

Louis  XIV.,  for  want  of  having  learned  geography,  thought 
himself  the  greatest  king  on  earth,  and  was  persuaded,  at 
Versailles,  that  Franche-Comt^  was  larger  and  more  consider- 
able than  the  peninsula  of  Taurica  and  the  island  of  Kuban. 
How  I  delight  in  reviving  those  glorious  names  and  glorious 
times  known  to  us  hitherto  in  fable  only  ! 

Elevation  of  soul,  imagination,  grandeur  of  ideas,  seem  to 
me  like  the  sea  which  draws  away  from  one  place  to  bear 
itself  to  another ;  't  is  thus  they  have  insensibly  attained  the 
realms  of  your  Majesty,  to  whom  belongs  the  magic  of 
Armida,  painted  by  Quinault  in  that  fine  choir,  which  Gluck 
still  farther  embellishes.  This  permission  to  follow  you  to 
that  fabled  land  is  a  favour  as  great  as  all  the  other  marks 
of  your  generosity.  I  should  hardly  have  been  bold  enough 
to  solicit  it,  but  ah !  with  what  pleasure  I  shall  profit  by  it ! 

I  wish  to  take  to  Greece  a  few  good  Flemings,  who  are 
Greeks  in  agriculture.  Perhaps  their  children  in  future 
years  may  become  so  in  other  ways,  though  their  parents, 
heavy  Belgians,  are  far  indeed  from  the  graces  of  the  charm- 
ing inhabitants  of  the  loveliest  land  on  earth. 

What  right  have  I  to  so  much  distinction  and  magnifi- 
cence? I  went  to  the  most  brilliant  of  Courts,  I  had  tlie 
happiness  to  amuse  myself  for  a  time  in  that  capital  on  the 
banks  of  the  Neva.  I  saw,  I  admired,  but  I  scarcely  said 
anything;  I  listened,  I  was  touched.  I  returned  to  the 
banks  of  the  Seine  and  the  Danube,  but  I  could  not  tell  one 
hundredth  part  of  what  I  felt.  The  trumpet  of  renown  and 
M.  de  Voltaire's  clarion  had  already  charmed  the  ears  of  all 
Europe  with  the  recital  of  those  marvels,  and  my  little  flageo- 
let, worthy  at  most  of  the  fields  and  the  camp,  could  barely 
repeat  it^ 


4  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

I  shall  plant  in  Taurica  for  the  governor,  the  Mar^chal 
Prince  Potemkin,  transparent  apples,  because  they  are  to  his 
liking,  and  the  image  of  his  soul,  and  I  shall  make,  like  him, 
English  gardens  upon  my  roofs;  and  thus,  without  being 
able  to  imitate  the  genius  of  that  spoilt  child  of  nature,  I  shall 
be  his  equal  in  attachment  and  gratitude  to  our  good 
sovereign. 

What  a  title  that  is  !  No  one  said  in  the  olden  time,  of 
conquerors  and  great  men  of  both  sexes  (if  there  were  any) 
"  our  good  king,"  "  our  good  queen."  Even  the  "  good 
Henri "  (who  has  suddenly,  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  years 
after  his  death,  been  made  the  fashion  by  a  comedy)  came 
near  flinging  all  Europe  into  fire  and  slaughter  with  his  pre- 
tended poulc  au  'pot. 

I  place  myself,  therefore,  at  the  feet  of  my  good  sovereign, 
and  while  awaiting  the  little  statue  for  my  garden  in  Iphi- 
geniopolis,  I  shall  preserve,  sure  that  no  stones  can  over- 
throw it,  that  greater  one  which  I  have  long  raised  to  her 
in  my  heart.  That  of  Diana  I  shall  fling  down  if  I  meet  her  ; 
hypocrisy  no  longer  suits  me,  and  I  am  tired  of  hunting. 

If  I  quarrel  with  our  governor  on  the  score  of  his  effacing 
till  pagan  ideas  with  his  Greek  liturgy,  your  Majesty  must 
obtain  ray  pardon.  [Prince  Potemkin  was  fanatical  for  the 
Ureek  Church.] 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  with  as  much  attachment,  enthu- 
siasm, respect,  and  admiration  as  ever,  Madame,  etc. 

Tlic  Empress   Catherine  to  the  Prince  de  Lignc. 

November  15,  1786. 

Monsieur  le  Pkince  de  Ligne, — You  will  say  that  I 
write  to  you  too  often ;  but  not  only  must  I  answer  your 
last  letter,  but  I  think  it  necessary  to  tell  you  that  I  have  at 
last  fixed  the  time  for  my  journey  in  Taurica.     I  shall  leave 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  5 

here  the  first  week  in  January,  1787,  and  I  shall  be  eighteen 
days  in  reaching  Kiev.  There  I  shall  patiently  await  the 
breaking  up  of  the  ice  in  the  Borysthenes  [Dnieper]  and  the 
arrival  of  those  who  will  be  ready  to  embark  with  me  about 
the  first  of  April.  This  will  employ,  as  you  see,  two  full 
months.  I  shall  then  lead  you  all  to  the  land  inhabited  in 
the  olden  time,  so  they  say,  by  Iphigenia.  The  name  of  that 
land  will  rouse  imaginations  ;  there  are  no  fables  they  will 
not  tell  about  my  journey  there.  One  thing  is  sure ;  I  shall 
be  charmed  to  see  you  once  more. 

I  hope  to  bring  with  me  a  number  of  your  acquaintances, 
and  several  ministers  from  countries  at  peace  with  me,  in 
presence  of  whom  no  battles  can  take  place ;  therefore 
sheathe,  if  you  please,  your  combative  inclinations.  Besides, 
the  governor-general  is  too  alert  to  suffer  Tartar  incursions, 
as  the  Seigneur  Iman  Mansour  can  testify.  The  grand 
equerry  threatened  to  play  us  a  very  ill  trick ;  he  was  sick 
unto  death,  but  is  now  convalescent. 

You  do  not  like  the  divinities  of  paganism,  and  show  as 
little  taste  for  Diana  as  you  once  showed  here  for  Hercules 
and  his  club.  Do  you  remember  the  rheumatism  in  my  arm 
which  made  me  so  sullen  every  evening  regularly  at  six 
o'clock,  and  which  increased  as  the  room  filled  up  ? 

You  are  delivered  from  the  danger  of  losing  your  eye- 
sight ;  but  if  ever  such  a  misfortune  should  happen  to  you, 
you  will  be  the  most  clear-sighted  blmd  man  I  have  ever 
known. 

I  am  not  sure  whether  my  Governor-general  of  Taurica 
will  take  your  attack  on  Homer  in  good  part ;  he  sulked 
because  I  thought  that  Comte  Stolberg  had  made  a  fairly 
good  translation  of  that  poet  into  German.  .  .  . 

If  Louis  XIV.  thought  himself  the  greatest  king  on  earth 
it  was  because  all  the  world  exhausted  themselves  in  telling 


6  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

him  so.     But  what  yard-measure  did  they  go  by  ?     Geogra- 
phy was  the  one  least  favourable  to  him. 

The  Prince  de  Lignc  to  H.  I.  M.  the  Empress  Catherine. 

November  15,  1786. 

Madame,  —  I  see  with  pleasure  the  happy  day  approach 
when  your  Imperial  Majesty,  crossing,  with  the  sun,  your 
vast  domains,  to  illumine  and  vivify  them  (like  that  bene- 
ficent star  which  is  your  only  rival),  will  shine  in  Taurica 
upon  a  new  horizon.  The  mother  of  light  is  preferable  to 
the  father,  and  is  not  so  dangerous  as  he  whose  strokes 
are  feared,  for  those  who  approach  your  Majesty  gain  only 
benefits.  Neither  have  I  heard  of  his  success  in  society ; 
there  is  too  much  Phoebus  in  his  conversation,  while  that  of 
your  Imperial  Majesty  leaves  something  behind  it  that 
makes  us  gayer,  gentler,  better  informed,  and  better  alto- 
gether. I  think  it  must  be  jealousy,  Madame,  that  makes 
your  rival  show  himself  so  short  a  time  in  Peterslnirg. 

My  military  residence  in  this  country  [Low  Countries]  is 
just  ending.  I  shall  go  for  a  short  time  to  Paris  and  Vienna 
before  placing  myself  at  your  Majesty's  feet  in  the  uniform 
of  your  government,  which  I  often  wear  with  pleasure.  Im- 
possible to  be  a  scamp  in  that  green  coat !  My  father  was 
mistaken,  and  my  tutors  told  a  lie  when  they  said  that  I 
should  never  be  anything  else. 

The  prospect  of  the  voyage  on  the  Dnieper  turns  my  head ; 
the  happiness  of  seeing  your  Majesty  from  morning  till  night 
throughout  that  time  makes  me  long  for  the  journey.  I 
shall  reach  Kiev  as  soon  as  I  know  the  day  of  your  arrival 
there. 

Peign,  Madame,  Qtc. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  7 

The  Empress  Catherine  to  the  Prince  de  Ligne. 

Peteksbcrg,  Dec.  2,  1786. 

Monsieur  le  Prince  de  Ligne,  —  Your  letter  of  Nov. 
I5th  has  just  reached  me  and  gives  me  true  pleasure,  —  that 
of  knowing  that  we  shall  meet  again.  My  departure  for 
Czarsko-zelo  is  fixed  for  January  2nd ;  thence  I  start  on  the 
4th,  and  shall  reach  Kiev,  please  God,  on  the  25th,  and 
shall  there  await  the  opening  of  the  Borysthenes  in  order  to 
embark ;  this  will  be,  they  say,  in  April. 

Far  from  resembling  in  my  course  the  brilliant  image  of 
the  sun,  as  you  suggest,  we  are  taking  all  possible  precau- 
tions to  appear  like  heavy  clouds.  Each  star  that  accom- 
panies me  is  provided  with  a  good,  thick,  black  pelisse,  and 
as,  like  all  stars,  my  companions  desire  that  their  furred 
garment  should  have  the  same  cut  as  mine,  that  model 
has  become  the  affliction  of  everybody.  I  wish,  myself, 
that  it  were  already  torn  or  lost,  that  I  might  hear  no 
more  about  it.  But  this  ill-humour  will  have  passed,  and 
the  constellation  of  the  Bear  will  have  come  by  the  time 
your  friends  have  the  joy  of  seeing  you.  I  sing  chorus  to 
them. 

I  hope  that  the  navigation  of  the  Dnieper  will  prove 
prosperous,  and  I  wish  that  you  may  not  be  bored. 

Heads  of  Medusa,  which  petrify  the  moment  they  appear, 
are  not  good  company ;  I  have  therefore  avoided  increasing 
their  number.  You  will  hardly  know  the  grand  equerry ;  at 
least  he  takes  great  pains,  ever  since  his  illness,  by  the 
arrangement  of  his  hair  to  make  himself  look  like  a  choir- 
boy. I  suspect  he  has  intentions  to  quell  the  Tritons  of  the 
Black  Sea,  for  he  has  lately  been  breaking  coursers  for  me 
that  are  more  fit  to  swim  than  to  gallop.  He  has  travelled 
much  since  you  saw  him,  and  has  even  tried  to  go  to  the 


8  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  UE  LIGNE. 

other  world.     You  will  find  that  he  has  benefited  in  every 

way,  and  has  not  forgotten  his  Chinese. 

I  hope  that  your  eye  will  not  suffer  from  the  journey,  and 

that  I  shall  soon  have  the  satisfaction  of  telling  you  by  word 

of  mouth  the  distinguished  sentiments  that  T  have  for  you, 

which  differ  entirely  from  those  of  your  father  and  tutors,  of 

which  you  inform  me.     I  think   you  have  more  than  one 

gift ;  those  that  I  myself  have  the  pleasure  of  knowing  have 

given  me  a  very  particular  esteem  for  you. 

Catherine. 

I  request  malicious  persons  who  have  read  the  "  Private 
Life  of  Catherine  II.,"  and  another  libel  called  her  "  Amours  " 
not  to  believe  them.  There  may  be  a  few  little  things  that 
are  true  in  the  accounts  which  have  appeared  of  the  journey 
of  the  empress  to  the  Crimea;  probably  remembered  and 
repeated  by  those  to  whom  I  told  them.  But  as  they  are 
mingled  with  other  things  that  are  not  true  at  all,  I  have 
resolved  to  publish  the  letters  that  I  wrote  during  this 
journey.  If  her  Imperial  Majesty  of  all  the  Russias  were 
still  living,  I  should  not  publish  her  praises ;  when  I  sang 
them  she  did  not  hear  them,  nor  will  she  now. 

To  Mme.  la  Marquise  de  Coigny  in  Paris. 

Kiev,  1787. 
Do  you  know  why  I  regret  you,  Madame  la  marquise? 
It  is  because  you  are  a  woman  unlike  any  other ;  and  I  am  a 
man  unlike  any  other,  inasmuch  as  I  appreciate  you  better 
than  those  who  are  about  you.  And  do  you  know  why  you 
are  a  woman  unlike  any  other  ?  Because  you  are  kind 
(though  some  people  do  not  believe  it),  because  you  are  sim- 
ple, although  you  are  witty ;  it  is  your  language ;  you  are 
wit  itself ;  but  you  never  run  after  epigram,  it  comes  to  you. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   BE   EIGNE.  9 

At  fifty  yecars  of  age  you  will  be  another  Mme.  du  Deffand 
for  piquancy,  another  Mme.  Geoffrin  for  judgment,  and  a 
Mardchale  de  Mirepoix  for  taste.  At  twenty  you  possess  the 
results  of  tlie  three  centuries  which  tlie  ages  of  those  ladies 
combine.  You  have  the  grace  of  an  "^l^gante"  although 
you  have  not  taken  to  that  profession.  You  are  superior 
without  alarming  any  but  fools.  Already  as  many  noble 
sayings  as  witty  ones  are  quoted  from  you.  "  Never  take  a 
lover,  for  that  would  be  abdicating  "  is  one  of  the  profoundest 
as  well  as  the  most  novel  of  ideas.  Yet  you  are  more  em- 
barrassed than  embarrassing ;  and  when  embarrassment  seizes 
you  a  certain  rapid  out-flowing  little  murmur  announces 
it  in  the  drollest  way.  You  are  the  most  amiable  of  women 
and  the  prettiest  of  boys;  in  short,  you  are  that  which  I 
regret  the  most. 

Ah  !  good  heavens  !  what  a  scene  before  me  !  what  a  hurly- 
burly  !  What  diamonds,  gold,  and  stars  and  cordons,  but  not 
including  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit!  What  chains,  ribbons, 
turbans,  what  scarlet  caps,  either  furred  or  pointed;  the 
latter  belonging  to  grotesque  little  beings  who  waggle  their 
heads  like  those  on  your  chimney-piece.  They  are  called 
Lesghians  and  have  come  as  a  deputation  (as  have  various 
other  vassals)  from  the  frontiers  of  the  great  wall  of  the 
Chinese  empire  and  that  of  Persia  and  Byzantium.  They 
are  rather  more  imposing  than  the  deputies  from  parliament 
or  the  assemblies  of  a  little  town,  who  are  now  coming  a 
score  of  leagues  by  coach  to  Versailles  to  make  some  silly 
representation  to  the  king. 

Louis  XIV.  would  have  been  jealous  of  his  sister,  or  he 
would  have  married  her,  if  only  to  have  had  such  a  splendid 
circle  about  him.  The  sons  of  the  king  of  the  Caucasus,  of 
Heraclius,  for  instance,  who  are  here,  would  give  him  more 
satisfaction  than  his  five  or  six  old  chevaliers  de  Saint-Louis. 


10  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

Twenty  archbishops  (a  trifle  unclean)  with  beards  to  their 
knees  are  far  more  picturesque  than  the  king's  ahuoners  in 
their  little  neckbands.  The  escort  of  Uhlans  attending  a 
Polish  great  seigneur,  who  is  on  his  way  to  see  a  cousin  in  the 
neighbourhood,  has  more  of  an  air  than  the  horse-police  in 
their  short  jackets,  who  precede  the  melancholy  coach,  with 
its  six  sorry  nags,  of  an  official  in  a  flat  collar  and  big  wig ; 
and  their  glittering  sabres  with  jewelled  hilts  are  much  more 
imposing  than  the  white  wands  of  the  great  officers  of  the 
King  of  England. 

The  empress  received  me  as  if,  instead  of  six  years,  I 
had  left  her  only  six  days  ago.  She  reminded  me  of  several 
things  that  sovereigns  alone  remember ;  they  all  have  mem- 
ories. There  is  something  of  the  whole  world  here,  and  for 
all  sorts  of  people :  great  and  little  politics,  great  and  little 
intrigues,  great  and  "  little  Poland."  A  few  of  the  famous  of 
that  land,  who  deceive  themselves,  or  are  deceived,  or  deceive 
others,  all  very  amiable  —  their  wives  still  more  so  —  are 
anxious  to  make  sure  that  the  empress  does  not  know  that 
they  insulted  her  by  the  barking  of  their  late  Diet.  They 
are  watching  for  a  glance  from  Prince  Potemkin ;  diffi- 
cult to  catch,  however,  for  the  prince  keeps  the  line  between 
a  squint  and  blindness.  The  women  are  soliciting  the 
ribbon  of  Saint  Catherine  in  order  to  wear  it  coquettish ly 
and  so  make  tlieir  friends  and  relations  jealous.  War 
is  desired  and  dreaded.  Complaints  are  made  that  the 
ministers  of  England  and  Prussia  are  inciting  the  Turks 
thereto.  I,  who  have  nothing  to  risk  and  glory,  perhaps, 
to  acquire,  I  long  for  war  with  all  my  heart;  and  then  I 
say  to  myself :  "  How  can  you  wish  for  that  which  will 
bring  so  many  evils  ? "  Then  I  stop  wishing  for  it ;  but 
the  remains  of  fermentation  in  my  blood  bring  back  my 
wishes,  and    the   remains    of    reason    again   oppose   them. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   TRINCE   DE   LIGNE.  11 

Ah !  good  God !  what  beings  we  are !     Perhaps  I  shall  have 
to  write  and  tell  you  that  — 

To  see  Paris  again  I  can  never  pretend ; 

To  the  night  of  the  tomb  I  'm  about  to  descend. 

That  idea  affects  me  ;  for  I  want  to  see  you ;  you  are 
nearer  to  my  heart  than  all  Paris  put  together.  —  They  have 
just  come  to  fetch  me  to  see  fireworks  which,  they  say, 
have  cost  40,000  roubles.  Those  of  your  conversation  are 
not  as  costly  as  that,  but  they  do  not  leave  us  afterwards  in 
the  dulness  and  darkness  that  follow  the  other  kind.  I 
prefer  your  sparkles  and  your  style  of  illumination. 

To  the  Same. 

From  my  galley. 
This  is  fate,  Madame  la  marquise.  I  left  you  in  the 
midst  of  a  dozen  adorers  who  do  not  understand  you, 
and  I  who  do  know  how  to  understand  you,  sliall  have  no 
chance  to  do  so  for  a  long  time.  I  am  twelve  hundred 
leagues  from  your  charms,  but  always  mentally  near  your 
wit  which  returns  incessantly  to  my  memory.  I  see  you, 
taking  pains  for  the  one  or  two  of  your  adorers  who  com- 
prehend you,  and  wasting  yourself  on  others ;  but  I  do  not 
see  that  your  heart  is  engaged  in  all  that.  Two  or  three 
deceivers  by  profession  tell  you  tales,  but  you  are  not  their 
dupe.  Two  or  three  speculators  flatter  themselves  they  can 
make  you  take  their  shares  in  some  scheme  that  is  beginning 
to  tangle.  You  take  no  share  in  anything  but  what  amuses 
you;  you  adopt  as  your  political  opinions  only  those  that 
inspire  a  piquant  speech  or  a  witty  one.  You  laugh  indif- 
ferently at  all,  —  the  tiers  and  the  quart ;  methinks  I  have 
heard  that  underlined  word  pronounced  already  by  some  of 
your  tiresome  "  Notables." 


12  MEMOIR  OF   THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

So  the  great  men  of  America  seem  small  to  3'ou  in  Europe ; 
I  myself  do  not  find  them,  like  Bordeaux  wine,  the  better 
for  crossing  the  seas.  You  say  they  wear  you  out,  and  you 
take  the  "  liberty,"  of  which  they  talk  so  much,  to  tell  them 
so.  And  you  do  not  like  the  Turgotins  any  more  than  you 
do  the  Turgotinesses ;  you  would  rather  have  wine-shops 
than  "  clubs,"  and  good,  dull  minds  than  bureaux  of  intellect. 
Some  of  those  men  of  intellect,  lulio  have  not  said  all  their 
say,  and  of  whom  we  are  warned,  are  excellent  persons  who 
will  have  to  make  themselves  beasts  to  make  you  believe 
in  their  passions. 

If  he  beside  whom  I  am  lodged  at  this  moment  goes 
astray  it  will  be  from  good  motives  and  too  little  logic.  He 
is  the  only  one  indulging  those  ideas  who  will  deserve 
indulgence.  This  dear  St^gur  is  separated  from  me  in  this 
galley  by  a  mere  partition.  How  we  talk  of  you !  And 
what  evil  I  tell  him  of  certain  persons  of  whom  he  thinks 
well,  and  to  whom  he  is  so  superior  !  Beware  of  philoso- 
phy !  —  But  I  say  once  more,  he  is  the  only  one  who  has 
nothing  but  praiseworthy  intentions. 

I  think  that  this  letter  will  be  sent  from  Krementczuck. 
The  name  is  not  lyrical;  but  you  must  accustom  yourself 
to  many  that  none  but  Lulli  and  Eameau  could  make  mel- 
lifluous. We  are  not  traversing  a  land  of  nymphs  and  swains 
and  vintagers  ;  but  you  do  not  care  for  that,  for  you  are  not 
pastoral.  The  grandest  sights,  however,  are  before  us.  For 
example,  from  my  splendid  bed  I  can  see  Perdvdosloff,  where 
that  poor  Charles  XII.  crossed  the  Borysthenes  to  hide  in 
Bender.  I  await  the  end  of  our  navigation  to  give  you  a 
better  account  of  it.  I  never  before  embarked  on  any  but 
small  adventures,  and  I  paddled  my  own  boat  then  like 
others.     Until  I  enter  that  of  Charon,  I  shall  never  cease  to 

love  you  and  tell  jou  so. 
Ver.  7  Mem.  1 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  13 

To  the  Same. 

From  Khersox. 

Cleopatra's  fleet  left  Kiev  as  soou  as  a  general  cannonading 
informed'  us  that  the  ice  in  the  Boiysthenes  had  broken  up. 
If  any  one  had  asked,  on  seeing  us  embark  in  our  great 
and  little  vessels  to  the  number  of  eighty,  with  three  thou- 
sand men  in  their  crews,  "  what  tlie  devil  we  were  going 
to  do  in  those  galleys,"  we  should  have  answered,  "  Amuse 
ourselves,  and  —  Vogue  la  galere  !  "  for  never  was  there  a 
voyage  so  brilliant  and  so  agreeable.  Our  chambers  are 
furnished  with  chin^  silk  and  divans ;  and  when  any  of 
those  who,  like  myself,  accompany  the  empress,  leaves  or 
returns  to  his  galley,  at  least  twelve  musicians  whom  we 
have  on  board  celebrate  the  event.  Sometimes  there  is  a 
little  danger  in  returning  at  night  after  supping  with  her 
Majesty  on  her  galley,  because  we  have  to  ascend  the 
Borysthenes,  often  against  the  wind,  in  a  small  boat.  In 
fact,  one  night  there  was  a  tempest,  in  order  that  we  might 
have  all  experiences,  and  two  or  three  galleys  went  ashore 
on  a  sand-bank. 

Our  Cleopatra  does  not  travel  to  seduce  Mark  Antonys 
and  Caesars.  The  Emperor  Joseph  was  already  seduced  into 
admiration  of  her  genius  and  power.  Cleopatra  does  not 
swallow  pearls,  but  she  gives  them  away  plentifully.  She 
resembles  her  prototype  of  antiquity  only  in  a  liking  for 
costly  navigation,  magnificence,  and  study.  She  has  given 
more  than  two  hundred  thousand  volumes  to  the  libraries 
of  her  empire.  That  is  the  boasted  number  of  the  library  of 
Pergamos,  with  which  the  Queen  of  Egypt  restored  that 
of  Alexandria ;  and  as  for  fetes,  Kherson  is  indeed  another 
Alexandria. 

After  those  at  Krementczuck  given  by  Prince  Potemkin, 

who  caused  to  be  transplanted  into  a  really  magical  English 
Ver.  7  Mem.  2 


14  MEMOIR  OF   THE  PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

garden  exotic  trees  as  big  rouud  as  himself,  we  disembarked 
at  the  cataracts  of  Keydac,  former  capital  of  the  Zaporoguas 
aquatic  brigands.  Here  the  Emperor  Joseph  II.  came  to 
meet  us,  and  the  fetes  were  renewed  on  his  arrival.  What 
astonished  and  interested  him  most,  for  he  is  a  great  musi- 
cian, were  fifty  do's,  fifty  re's,  fifty  mi's,  and  so  on ;  in  short, 
a  concert  of  notes  in  which  many  performers  play  one  note 
only ;  this  concert  makes  celestial  music  —  for  it  is  too 
extraordinary  to  be  known  upon  earth. 

I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  the  King  of  Poland  awaited  us 
at  Kanifeve  on  the  Borysthenes.  He  spent  three  months 
and  three  millions  in  waiting  to  see  the  empress  for  three 
hours.  I  went  in  a  little  Zaporogian  canoe  to  tell  him  of 
our  arrivaL  An  hour  later  the  grandees  of  the  empire  came 
to  fetch  him  in  a  brilliant  barge.  As  he  set  foot  upon  it  he 
said,  with  the  inexpressible  charm  of  his  beautiful  face  and 
the  soft  tones  of  his  voice  :  "  Messieurs,  the  King  of  Poland 
has  charged  me  to  present  to  you  the  Comte  Poniatowski." 
The  dinner  was  very  gay ;  we  drank  the  king's  health  to  a 
triple  salute  of  aU  the  artillery  of  the  fleet.  On  leaving  the 
table,  the  king  looked  about  for  his  hat,  and  could  not  find 
it.  The  empress,  more  adroit,  saw  where  it  was  and  gave  it 
to  liim.  "  Twice  to  cover  my  head  ! "  said  the  king,  gallantly, 
alluding  to  his  crown ;  "  ah,  madame !  that  is  heaping  too 
many  benefits,  too  much  gratitude  upon  me."  Our  squadron 
was  lying  under  the  windows  of  the  king,  who  returned  to 
the  house  to  give  us  a  supper.  A  representation  of  Vesuvius, 
which  lasted  the  whole  night  that  we  lay  at  anchor,  lighted 
up  the  mountains  and  the  plains  and  the  river  better  than 
the  finest  sun  at  mid-day,  gilding,  or  I  should  say  igniting  to 
a  blaze  all  nature.     We  did  not  know  that  it  was  night. 

The  empress  has  never  before  known  so  well  the  charms 
of  social  intercourse ;  and,  as  there  are  two  or  three  of  us 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  15 

who  do  not  play  cards,  she  has  sacrificed  the  little  game  she 
usually  plays  in  llussia  to  give  her  something  that  appears 
like  an  occupation.  The  other  day  tlie  grand  equerry, 
Narischkin,  the  best  and  most  infantile  of  men,  spun  a  top 
into  the  midst  of  us,  the  head  of  which  was  bigger  than  his 
own.  After  much  humming  and  many  leaps,  which  amused 
us  very  much,  it  burst,  with  horrible  hissing,  into  three  or 
four  pieces,  one  of  which  passed  between  her  Imperial 
Majesty  and  me,  wounded  a  couple  of  our  neighbours,  and 
struck  the  head  of  the  Prince  of  Nassau,  the  invuhierable, 
who  has  had,  in  consequence,  to  be  twice  bled  for  it. 

The  empress  said  at  table  yesterday :  "  It  is  very  singular 
that  you,  which  is  plural,  should  have  come  to  be  the  rule. 
Why  have  they  banislied  thou  ?  "  "  It  is  not  banished,  Ma- 
dame," I  replied,  "  for  Jean-Jacques  Eousseau  says  to  God : 
'  Lord,  in  thine  adorable  glory ; '  and  God  is  thee'd  and 
thou'd  in  our  prayers  ;  for  instance :  Nunc  diinittis  servum 
tuum,  Domine."  "  Well,  then,"  said  the  empress,  "  why  do 
you  treat  me  with  more  ceremony  ?  Come,  I  will  set  you 
the  example.  Wilt  thou  give  me  some  of  that  ?  "  she  said  to 
the  grand  equerry.  "  Yes,"  he  replied,  "  if  thou  wilt  hand 
me  something  else."  And  thereupon  a  deluge  of  thee-ings 
and  thou-ings,  each  more  funny  than  the  others.  I  mingled 
mine  with  "  Majesty,"  and  Ta  Majeste  seemed  to  me  the  right 
thing.  Others  did  not  know  what  they  ought  to  say.  But 
in  spite  of  it  all,  her  thee-ing  and  thou-ing  and  thee'd  and 
thou'd  Majesty  still  wore  the  air  of  the  autocratress  of  all 
the  Russias,  and  of  nearly  all  the  rest  of  the  world. 

The  empress  permitted  us,  that  is  to  say,  the  Prince  of 
Nassau  and  me,  as  amateurs,  and  perhaps  as  connoisseurs,  to 
go  and  reconnoitre  Oczakow  [that  and  Kinbourn  were  Turk- 
ish forts  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dnieper]  and  ten  Turkish  ves- 
sels, which  have  placed  themselves,  very  uncivilly,  across  the 


16  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

Borystheues,  as  if  to  stop  our  passage  iu  case  their  imperial 
Majesties  should  wish  to  go  by  water  as  far  as  Kinbourn. 
When  the  empress  saw  the  position  of  the  vessels  marked 
on  the  little  map  that  was  brought  to  her  she  gave  a  flick 
with  her  finger  to  the  paper  and  began  to  smile.  I  look 
upon  that  as  a  delightful  av ant-courier  of  a  pretty  little  war 
we  shall  soon  have,  I  hope.  I  thought  the  other  day  it  must 
be  for  this  that  they  ushered  into  the  empress's  cabinet, 
where  the  emperor  had  just  gone,  an  officer  of  artillery,  an 
officer  of  engineers,  and  Prince  Potemkin. 

"  You  are  aware,"  said  the  empress  the  other  day,  "  that 
your  France  is  always,  without  knowing  why,  protecting  the 
Mussulmans."  Sdgur  turned  pale,  Nassau  turned  red,  Fitz- 
Herbert  yawned,  Cobenzl  wriggled,  and  I  laughed.  Eeally, 
it  is  not  so ;  the  matter  in  question  was  only  one  of  building 
a  magazine  iu  one  of  the  seven  coves  in  the  harbour  of  Sevas- 
topol. When  I  talk  of  my  hopes  of  war  to  S^gur  he  says.* 
"  But  we  shall  lose  the  seaports  of  the  Levant "  \les  echelles 
(III  Levant].  To  which  I  answer :  "  There  is  nothing  left  for 
you  to  do  [Faut  tirer  I'echelle  apres  votis]  after  the  minis- 
terial folly  you  have  just  committed  by  M.  Necker's  general 
confession  of  poverty  before  that  ridiculous  Assembly  of 
Notables." 

"  How  do  you  think  I  succeed  with  the  empress  ? "  said  the 
emperor  to  me  one  morning.  "  Wonderfully,  sire,"  I  replied. 
"  Faith  !  it  is  difficult,"  he  added,  "  to  hold  one's  own  against 
the  rest  of  you.  There  is  my  dear  ambassador,  out  of  grati- 
tude, kindness,  liking  for  the  empress,  and  friendship  for  me, 
always  swinging  his  incense-pot,  into  which  you  throw 
grains  for  the  rest  of  us  pretty  often ;  M.  de  S^gur  pays  her 
his  very  witty  and  very  French  compliments,  and  even  that 
P^nglishman  lets  fly  from  time  to  time  some  tiny  shaft  of 
flattery,  so  epigrammatic  that  it  is  all  the  more  piquant." 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  17 

We  have  launched  three  vessels,  and  I  amused  myself  by 
being  launched  in  one  of  them.  You  understand,  of  course, 
that  the  one  I  was  on  was  a  vessel  of  the  ligne.  Gauzes, 
laces,  furbelows,  garlands,  pearls,  and  flowers  adorned  the 
canopies  erected  on  the  shore  for  the  two  Majesties,  which 
looked  as  if  they  had  just  come  from  a  fashionable  shop  in 
the  rue  Saint-Honor^,  but  they  were  really  the  work  of  Rus- 
sian soldiers,  who  are  turned  into  milKners,  sailors,  popes, 
musicians,  or  surgeons,  in  short,  into  anything  that  is 
wanted,  by  a  fairy  wand  —  not  that  of  a  fairy  as  charming  as 
you.  Now  I  am  going  to  think  of  your  enchantments  in  the 
land  of  enchanters,  for  we  are  starting  immediately  for  Tau- 
rica,  where,  if  Iphigenia  had  been  as  amiable  as  you,  she 
would  never  have  been  sacrificed  —  never,  at  least,  in  that 
way. 

To  the  Same. 

Barczisarai,  June  1, 1787. 

I  expected  to  elevate  my  soul  on  arriving  in  the  Taurica 
[Crimea]  through  all  the  great  things,  true  and  false,  that 
have  happened  here.  My  mind  was  ready  to  turn  itself, 
with  Mithridates,  to  the  heroic,  to  the  fabulous  with  Iphi- 
genia, the  military  with  the  Eomans,  the  fine  arts  with  the 
Greeks,  to  brigandage  with  the  Tartars,  to  commerce  with 
the  Genoese.  All  those  personages  and  nations  are  some- 
what familiar  to  me ;  but  lo  !  here  comes  another,  and  they 
have  severally  disappeared  before  the  Arabian  Nights.  I  am 
in  the  harem  of  the  last  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  who  made  a 
great  mistake  in  breaking  up  his  camp,  and  abandoning  to 
the  Russians,  four  years  ago,  the  most  beautiful  country  in 
the  world.  [The  last  Tartar  khan,  Saham  Guerei,  abdicated 
in  1783  his  sovereignty  in  favour  of  Catherine  II.,  to  whom 
Turkey   also   ceded   its    supremacy.      Russia  thus  became 


18  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

possessed  of  a  strong  position,  from  which  she  hoped  in 
time  to  command  the  Danube,  the  Bosphorus,  and  the 
Euxine.]  Fate  has  destined  to  me  the  chamber  of  the  pret- 
tiest of  the  sultanas,  and  to  S(^gur  that  of  the  chief  of  the 
black  eunuchs.  My  cursed  imagination  will  not  shrivel  with 
age ;  it  is  as  fresh  and  rosy  and  round  as  the  cheeks  of  Ma- 
dame la  marquise.  In  this  palace,  which  partakes  of  the 
Moorish,  Arabic,  Chinese,  and  Turkish,  paintmgs,  gilding, 
inscriptions,  fountains,  and  little  gardens  are  everywhere ; 
among  them,  in  the  very  droll  and  splendid  audience- 
chamber  may  be  read,  in  the  Turkish  language,  in  letters  of 
gold,  around  the  cornice,  these  words  :  "  In  defiance  of  Envy, 
the  whole  world  is  informed  that  there  is  nothing  in  Ispahan, 
Damascus,  or  Stamboul  as  rich  as  this." 

After  leaving  Kherson,  we  found  marvellous  camps  of 
Asiatic  magnificence  in  the  middle  of  the  desert.  I  no 
longer  know  where  I  am,  or  in  what  age  I  live.  When, 
suddenly,  I  see  mountams  rise  up  before  me  and  walk,  I 
think  it  is  a  dream  ;  it  is  really  a  stud  of  dromedaries,  which, 
when  they  get  up  and  walk  on  their  great  legs,  resemble  at  a 
distance  moving  mountains.  "  Such  as  these,"  I  say  to  my- 
self, "  are  just  what  furnished  the  stable  of  the  Three  Kings 
for  their  famous  journey  to  Bethlehem."  Again  I  dream, 
methinks,  when  I  meet  the  young  princes  of  the  Caucasus, 
almost  covered  with  silver,  on  their  dazzling  white  horses. 
When  I  see  them  armed  with  bows  and  arrows  I  fancy  I  am 
back  in  the  days  of  the  old  and  the  young  Cyrus.  Their 
quivers  are  superb  —  you  know  none  but  those  of  Love,  but 
the  shafts  in  yours  are  gayer  and  more  pointed.  When  I 
meet  detachments  of  Circassians,  handsome  as  the  day,  with 
their  waists  more  tightly  nipped  into  their  corselets  than  that 

of  Madame  de  L •;  when  I  see  Mourzas  more  daintily 

dressed  than  the  Duchesse  de  Choiseul  at  the  queen's  ball, 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  19 

Cossack  officers  with  better  taste  in  draping  their  scarfs 
than  Mile.  Bertin,  and  furniture  and  garments  of  more 
harmonious  colouring  than  Mme.  Le  Brun  can  put  into  her 
paintings,  I  am  lost  in  amazement.  At  Stare  Krim  (where 
a  palace  was  raised  in  which  to  sleep  one  night)  I  could 
descry  from  my  bed  all  that  is  most  interesting  in  two 
quarters  of  the  world  as  far,  almost,  as  the  Caspian  Sea.  I 
think  it  was  a  part  of  Satan's  temptation,  for  nothing  liner 
could  have  been  shown  to  our  Lord.  I  could  see  from  the 
same  point  on  leaving  my  cliamber,  the  Black  Sea,  the  Sea 
of  Azov,  the  Sea  of  Zabache,  and  the  Caucasus.  The  guilty 
man  who  was  eaten  there  (everlastingly,  I  believe)  by  a 
vulture  had  never  stolen  as  much  fire  as  you  have  in  your 
eyes  and  in  your  imagination  —  at  any  rate,  that  is  how 
your  subtle  and  adoring  weasel,  the  Abb^  d'Espagnac,  would 
put  it. 

Again  I  think  I  dream  when,  in  a  coach  of  six  places 
(a  triumphal  car  adorned  with  jewelled  monograms),  being 
seated  between  two  persons  on  whose  shoulders  the  extreme 
heat  makes  me  often  drop  asleep,  I  hear,  as  I  waken,  one 
of  them  say  to  the  other :  "  I  have  thirty  millions  of  subjects, 
so  they  tell  me,  counting  only  males."  "  And  I,"  says  the 
other,  "  twenty-two,  counting  all."  "  I  require,"  adds  the 
first,  "  an  army  of  six  hundred  thousand  men,  at  least,  from 
Riga  to  Kamtschatka."  "  With  half  that  number,"  replies 
the  other,  "  I  have  just  as  many  as  I  want." 

S^gur  will  tell  you  how  much  this  impetuous  imperial  com- 
rade has  pleased  him.  In  return  S^gur  has  pleased  the 
emperor.  That  monarch  enchants  all  who  see  him.  Freed 
■from  the  cares  of  his  empire  he  makes  the  happiness  of  his 
friends  by  his  social  quahties.  He  has  only  been  slightly 
out  of  temper  once,  the  other  day,  when  he  received  news 
of  the  insurrection  in  the  Low  Countries.     All  those  who 


20  MEMOIR  OF   THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

own  lands  in  the  Crimea,  such  as  the  Mourzas,  and  others,' 
like  myself,  to  whom  the  empress  has  given  estates,  have 
taken  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  her.  The  emperor  came  up  to 
me,  and  taking  hold  of  the  libbon  of  my  Fleece  he  said: 
"You  are  the  first  of  this  Order  who  have  ever  taken  an 
oath  with  the  long-beard  seigneurs."  I  replied,  "  It  is 
better  for  youj  Majesty,  and  for  me  too,  that  I  should  be 
with  the  Tartar  seigneurs  than  with  the  Flemish  seigneurs 
just  now." 

All  nations  and  their  greatest  personages  have  been  re- 
viewed in  that  coach,  and  God  knows  how  they  were  served. 
"  Rather  than  sign  the  separation  of  thirteen  States,  as  my 
brother  George  has  done,"  said  Catherine  IL,  softly,  "  I  would 
have  shot  myself."  "  Kather  than  throw  up  my  power,  as 
my  brother-in-law  has  done  by  convoking  and  assembling 
the  nation  to  talk  of  abuses,"  says  Joseph  IL,  "  I  don't  know 
what  I  would  have  done."  They  were  quite  agreed  about 
the  King  of  Sweden  [Gustavus  III.],  whom  neither  of  them 
liked,  and  against  whom  the  emperor  liad  taken  a  preju- 
dice in  Italy  on  account,  so  he  said,  of  a  blue  and  sUver 
dressing-gown  with  a  diamond  badge  that  the  king  wore. 
They  both  agreed,  however,  that  he  had  energy,  talent,  and 
intellect.  "Yes,  undoubtedly,"  I  said,  defending  him,  be- 
cause the  kindness  he  has  always  shown  me  and  the  fine 
characteristics  I  have  seen  him  display  attach  me  to  him. 
"  Your  majesty  ought  to  prevent  the  shameful  libel  of  treat- 
ing as  a  Don  Quixote  a  prince  endowed  with  genius,  who  is 
good  and  lovable." 

Their  imperial  Majesties  felt  each  other  now  and  then 
about  these  poor  devils  of  Turks.  They  threw  out  sugges- 
tions and  glanced  at  each  other.  As  a  lover  of  glorious 
antiquity  (and  of  novelty  as  well)  I  talked  about  restoring 
the  Greeks;   Catherine  of  reviving  the  Solons  and  Lycur- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE.  21 

guses ;  I  enlarged  on  Alcibiades ;  but  Joseph  II.,  who  was 
more  for  the  future  than  the  past,  and  for  the  practical 
instead  of  the  chimerical,  only  said  :  '•'  What  the  devil  should 
we  do  with  Constantinople  ? "  In  this  way  isles  and  prov- 
inces were  taken  with  ease  as  if  it  were  all  a  mere  nothing ; 
but  I  said  to  myself :  "  Your  Majesties  will  never  get  any- 
thing but  trifles  —  and  troubles." 

"We  treat  him  too  well,"  said  the  emperor,  one  day, 
speaking  of  me.  "Do  you  know,  Madame, -that  he  was  in 
love  with  my  father's  mistress,  and  prevented  me  from  suc- 
ceeding with  a  marquise,  lovely  as  an  angel,  who  was  the 
first  passion  of  both  of  us  ? "  There  was  no  reserve  between 
these  two  great  sovereigns.  "  Tell  me,  did  no  one  ever 
attempt  your  life  ? "  —  "I  have  been  threatened."  —  "  As  for 
me,  I  receive  many  anonymous  letters."  — "  Now  this  is  a 
real  confession  that  I  am  making  to  you,  —  charming  details 
unknown  to  all  the  world,"  etc. 

The  empress  said  to  us  one  day  in  her  galley  :  "  How  do 
people  make  verses  ?  Write  it  down  for  me,  M.  le  Comte 
de  Segur."  He  wrote  down  the  rules,  addincr  some  charm- 
ing  examples,  with  which  she  went  to  work.  She  made  six 
lines,  so  full  of  faults  that  we  laughed,  all  three  of  us.  She 
said  to  me :  "  To  teach  you  to  laugh  at  me,  make  some 
directly,  yourself.  I  shall  not  try  any  more ;  I  am  dis- 
gusted with  it  for  the  rest  of  my  life."  "  That  is  right," 
said  Fitz  Herbert,  "  you  had  better  keep  to  the  couplet  you 
wrote  on  the  tomb  of  your  little  dog  :  — 

"  '  Here  lies  Duchess  Anderson 
Who  bit  Monsieur  Rogerson.'  " 

But  the  matter  came  back  into  her  head  at  Barczisarai. 
"  Ah  !  messieurs,"  she  said  to  us,  "  I  intend  to  shut  myself 
into  my  own  room,  and  you  will  see ! "  This  is  what  she 
brought  back  to  us,  saying  she  could  get  no  farther :  — ■ 


22  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

"  Sur  le  sopha  du  khan,  sur  des  coussins  bourrcs, 
Dans  un  kiosque  d'or,  de  grilles  entoures  —  " 

[On  the  sofa  of  the  khan,  on  the  cushions  downy, 
In  a  golden  kiosk,  with  lattices  around  me  — ] 

You  can  imagine  how  we  reproached  her  for  not  having 
got  beyond  that,  after  four  hours  of  reflection,  and  so  fine 
a  beginning.     Nothing  is  forborne  in  traveUing. 

This  country  is  assuredly  a  land  of  romance,  but  it  is  not 
romantic,  for  the  women  are  locked  up  by  these  villanous 
Mahometans,  who  never  read  Scgur's  ode  on  the  happiness 
of  being  deceived  by  a  wife.  The  Duchesse  de  Luxembourg 
would  turn  my  head  if  she  were  at  Achmeczet,  and  I  should 
write  a  song  on  the  Mar^chale  de  Mouchy  if  she  lived  in 
Balaklava.  There  is  none  but  you,  dear  marquise,  to  be 
adored  when  in  Paris  —  adored  is  the  word,  for  there  is  no 
time  to  love  there. 

There  are  various  sects  of  dervishes  here,  each  more 
amusing  than  the  others,  called  Tivirlers  and  Howlers; 
they  are  Jansenists,  as  crazy  as  the  old  convulsionaries. 
They  shout,  "  Alla,h  ! "  and  twirl,  until,  their  strength  being 
exhausted,  they  fall  to  the  ground,  hoping  not  to  rise  again 
till  they  enter  heaven.  To-morrow  I  am  going  to  leave  the 
Court  to  its  pleasures  for  a  few  days,  and  ascend  and  descend 
on  the  other  side  the  Tchatirdagh  at  the  risk  of  my  life, 
following  the  craggy  bed  of  the  torrents,  in  default  of  roads, 
of  which  there  are  none.  I  need  to  rest  my  mind,  my 
tongue,  my  ears,  and  my  eyes  from  the  glare  of  illumina- 
tions. All  night  they  rival  the  sun,  which  is  only  too  hot 
on  our  heads  all  day.  None  but  you,  dear  marquise,  know 
how  to  be  brilliant  without  fatiguing ;  I  grant  that  gift  to 
no  one  else  —  not  even  to  the  stars. 


II. 

1786-1787.  • 

THE  JOURNEY  TO   THE  CRIMEA. 

To  Mme.  la  Marquise  de  Coigny. 

Parthenizza. 

I  send  you,  dear  marquise,  after  copying  it  for  you  neatly, 
what  I  wrote  on  the  spot  in  pencil  at  Parthenizza :  — 

'T  is  on  the  silvery  shores  of  the  Euxine,  on  the  banks  of 
its  widest  brook,  down  which  pour  the  torrents  of  the 
Tchatirdagh,  'tis  beneath  the  shade  of  two  great  walnut- 
trees  old  as  the  world  itself,  at  the  foot  of  a  rock  on  which 
still  stands  a  column,  sad  relic  of  the  Temple  of  Diana  so 
famous  for  the  sacrifice  of  Iphigenia,  to  the  left  of  the  rock 
whence  Thoas  hurled  strangers  —  it  is,  in  short,  in  the  most 
beautiful  and  most  interesting  region  of  all  the  world  that 
I  write  these  words. 

I  am  seated  on  cushions  on  a  Turkey  carpet,  surrounded  by 
Tartars,  who  are  watching  me  while  I  write  and  casting  up 
their  eyes  in  admiration,  as  though  I  were  another  Mahomet. 
I  see  before  me  the  favoured  shores  of  ancient  Idalia  and  the 
coasts  of  Anatolia.  The  fig-trees,  palm-trees,  the  olive,  cherry, 
apricot,  and  peach  trees,  all  in  bloom,  shed  the  sweetest 
perfumes  round  me,  and  shade  me  from  the  rays  of  the  sun  ; 
the  waves  of  the  sea  are  rolling  to  my  feet  their  diamond 
pebbles.  Behind  me  I  see,  amid  the  leafage,  an  amphi- 
theatre of  dwellings,  those  of  my  Tartar  savages,  who  are 
smoking  on  their  flat  roofs,  which  they  use  for  salons.  I 
see  their  cemetery,   the   site   of  which,   always   chosen  for 


24  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

the  purpose  by  Mahometans,  reminds  me  of  the  Champs- 
El  lys^es.  This  particular  cemetery  lies  along  the  bank  of 
the  brook  I  mentioned;  but  just  where  the  rocks  and  pebbles 
obstruct  its  course  the  brook  widens  a  little  on  one  side, 
flowing  peacefully  among  the  fruit-trees,  which  give  to  the 
dead  their  hospitable  shade.  This  tranquil  resting-place  is 
marked  by  stones  surmounted  by  turbans,  some  of  which 
are  gilded,  and  by  cinerary  urns,  coarsely  cut  in  marble. 
The  variety  of  all  these  sights  induces  thought  and  disin- 
clines me  for  writing.  I  fling  myself  back  on  my  carpet 
and  reflect  — 

No,  what  is  passing  in  my  soul  cannot  be  conceived  ;  I 
feel  myself  another  being.  Escaping  from  grandeur,  from 
the  tumult  of  fUes,  the  fatigue  of  pleasures,  and  the  two 
imperial  Majesties  of  the  North  and  West  (whom  I  have  left 
on  the  other  side  of  the  mountains),  at  last  I  possess  my 
own  self.  I  ask  myself  where  I  am,  by  what  good  chance  I 
am  here,  and  then,  without  my  intending  it,  a  recapitulation 
of  all  the  inconsistencies  of  my  life  passes  through  my  mind. 
I  perceive  that,  being  unable  to  be  happy  except  in  tranquil- 
lity and  independence,  which  are  in  my  power,  and  inclined 
by  nature  to  laziness  of  body  and  mind,  I  have,  all  my  life, 
agitated  the  first  incessantly  by  wars,  inspection  of  troops, 
and  travels ;  while  the  second  I  have  wasted  upon  persons 
who  are  not  worth  it.  Gay  enough  within  me,  I  must  needs 
fatigue  myself  to  be  so  for  others  who  are  not  gay.  I  ask 
myself  why,  not  liking  restraint,  or  caring  for  honours, 
money,  or  favours,  having  enough  of  all  to  make  little  ac- 
count of  any,  ivhy  I  have,  nevertheless,  spent  my  life  at  all 
the  Courts  of  Europe.  Well,  T  remember  that  the  paternal 
sort  of  kindness  of  the  Emperor  Francis  I.,  who  was  fond 
of  heedless  young  men,  was  what  attached  me  first  to  him. 
Loved  by  one  of  his  ladies,  I  stayed  on  at  the  Court,  but  I 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  25 

never  lost  tliat  sovereign's  good-will.  At  his  death,  in  1765, 
I  thought  myself,  though  still  very  young  [aet.  30]  a  seigneur 
of  the  old  Court,  and  was  about  to  criticise  the  new  one  with- 
out knowing  anything  of  it,  when  I  discovered  that  the  new 
emperor,  Joseph  II.,  was  just  as  amiable  and  had  qualities 
that  made  me  desire  his  esteem  more  than  his  favour.  Cer- 
tain that  he  never  liked  to  show  preference,  I  could  follow 
the  bent  of  my  inclination  towards  him  ;  and  while  I  blamed 
the  too  great  rapidity  of  his  operations,  I  admired  three- 
fourths  of  them,  and  I  always  maintained  the  good  intentions 
of  his  genius  —  as  active  as  it  was  fruitful 

Sent  to  the  Court  of  France  in  its  brilliant  period,  to  carry 
brilliant  news,  that  of  a  battle  won  [Maxen,  1759],  I  never 
wished  to  return  to  that  Court.  Chance  brought  the  Comte 
d'Artois  to  a  garrison  in  the  neighbourhood  of  another  where 
I  happened  to  be  inspecting  troops  [1774].  He  wanted  me 
to  go  and  see  him  at  Versailles.  I  said  no,  I  would  see  him 
in  Paris.  He  insisted ;  spoke  to  me  of  tlie  queen,  our  own 
archduchess,  who,  not  long  after,  sent  me  a  command  to  go 
to  her  Court.  The  charms  of  her  face  and  of  her  soul,  the 
one  as  white  and  beautiful  as  the  other,  and  the  attraction  of 
that  society  made  me  henceforth  spend  five  montlis  of  every 
year  in  her  suite,  without  absenting  myself  for  a  day.  Thus, 
idle  amusement  took  me  to  Versailles  ;  gratitude  made  me 
return  there. 

Prince  Henry  [of  Prussia,  brother  of  Frederick  the  Great] 
was  visiting  the  battlefields.  Philosophy  and  miUtary  in- 
struction having  brought  us  together,  I  accompanied  him.  I 
had  the  good  fortune  to  suit  him.  Much  kindness  on  his 
part,  assiduity  on  mine  ;  close  correspondence,  and  rendezvous 
at  Spa  and  Reinsberg.  A  camp  of  the  emperor  at  Neustadt 
in  Moravia  attracted  the  then  King  of  Prussia  [Frederick  the 
Great]  and  the  present  one.     The  former  observed  my  admi- 


26  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

ration  for  great  men  and  invited  me  to  Berlin.  My  relations 
with  him  there,  and  the  marks  of  esteem  and  kindness  given 
to  me  by  that  first  of  heroes  crowned  me  with  glory.  I 
escaped  the  cordial  invitations  of  the  two  other  kings  of  the 
North ;  the  weak  brains  of  the  one  having  turned  the  too 
lively  brains  of  the  other  in  time  to  save  me  from  the 
insipid  amusements  promised  to  me  at  Copenhagen  and 
Stockholm.  I  was  quit  of  them  by  giving  fUes  to  one  king 
and  receiving  them  from  the  other. 

My  son  Charles  married  a  pretty  little  Polish  ghl  [in 
1779].  Her  family  gave  us  paper  in  place  of  ready  money; 
claims  upon  the  Court  of  Eussia.  On  my  return  thence  I 
made  myself,  and  was  made  a  Pole  at  the  Diet  in  Warsaw. 
A  fool  of  a  bishop  (who  has  since  been  hanged),  uncle  of  my 
daughter-in-law,  took  into  his  head  that  I  was  au  mieux  with 
the  empress,  because  he  heard  she  treated  me  well,  and  he 
persuaded  himself  that  I  should  be  King  of  Poland  if  I  w^ere 
naturalized.  "  "Wliat  a  change,"  he  cried,  "  of  the  face  of 
Europe !  What  happiness  for  the  Lignes  and  the  Mas- 
salskis  ! "  I  laughed  at  him.  Nevertheless,  I  had  a  fancy 
to  please  that  nation,  then  assembled  for  its  Diet.  I  talked 
Latin ;  the  nation  applauded  me  ;  I  embraced  their  mous- 
tachios  ;  I  intrigued  for  the  king,  Stanislas  Poniatowski,  who 
is  himself  an  intriguer,  like  all  kings  who  stay  upon  their 
thrones  on  condition  only  of  doing  the  will  of  their  neigh- 
bours and  subjects.  He  was  kind,  amiable,  and  attractive ; 
I  gave  him  advice ;  and  there  I  was,  bound  to  him. 

When  I  went  to  Ptussia  the  first  thing  I  did  was  to  forget 
what  I  went  for,  because  it  seemed  to  me  indelicate  to  profit 
by  the  favour  with  which  I  was  received  to  press  a  claim. 
The  confiding  and  fascinating  simplicity  of  Catherine  the 
Great  captivated  me  ;  and  it  is  her  genius  which  has  now 
made  me  follow  her  to  this  encliantinrr  spot. 


MEMOIR  OP  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  27 

I  let  my  eyes  wander  over  it ;  I  allow  my  mind  to  rest : 
has  it  not  just  proved  to  me,  by  retracing  the  chain  of  cir- 
cumstances which  has  always  led  me  to  do  what  I  did  not 
will  to  do,  that  I  have  no  head  ? 

The  night  will  be  dehcious.  The  sea,  tired  with  its  motion 
through  the  day,  is  now  so  calm  that  't  is  like  a  mirror ;  in 
it  I  see  myself,  to  the  depths  of  my  heart.  This  evening 
hour  is  wonderful ;  I  feel  in  my  ideas  the  same  clear  light 
that  reigns  on  sea  and  sky.  Why  —  I  say  to  myself  —  why 
am  I  now  meditating  on  the  beauties  of  it  instead  of  enjoy- 
ing the  sweet  repose  of  sleep,  of  which  I  am  an  idolater  ? 
Because  I  fancy  that  this  region  inspires  me ;  that  amid  so 
many  enchantments  a  thought  may  come  to  me  that  will  do 
a  good  or  give  a  pleasure  to  others. 

Perhaps  it  was  here  that  Ovid  wrote;  perhaps  he  sat 
where  I  sit  now.  His  elegies  were  from  Ponte,  and  there  lies 
the  Euxine.  Certainly  this  shore  belonged  to  Mithridates, 
King  of  Pontus,  and  as  Ovid's  place  of  exile  is  uncertain 
I  have  more  right  to  believe  it  was  here  than,  as  the 
Transylvanians  assert,  at  Caramiscliedes.  Their  claim  rests 
solely  on  the  words  Car  a  mia  sedes,  tlie  corrupt  pronuncia- 
tion of  which  they  imagine  makes  the  name  I  have  quoted. 
Yes,  this  is  Parthenizza ;  the  Tartar  accent  having  thus 
transformed  the  old  Greek  name,  Parthenion,  which  means 
virgin.  This  is  the  famous  Cape  Parthenion,  where  so 
many  things  have  happened ;  it  is  here  that  mythology 
exalts  the  imagination.  All  the  talents  in  the  service  of 
the  gods  of  fable  have  exercised  their  empire  here.  If  1 
quit,  for  an  instant,  fable  for  history  I  discover  Eupatoria, 
founded  by  Mithridates  ;  near-]:)y,  in  Kherson,  I  pick  up  frag- 
ments of  alabaster  columns,  I  find  the  remains  of  aqueducts, 
and  city  walls  inclosing  a  greater  space  than  Paris  and 
London  put  together.     Those  two  cities  will  pass  away  like 


28  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

these ;  in  all,  the  same  intrigues  of  love  and  politics  ;  each 
believing  that  it  makes  a  vast  sensation  in  the  world, 
while  the  very  name  of  this  land  that  these  lost  cities 
stood  on,  disfigured  now  into  Tartary  and  Crimea,  is  pass- 
ing to  oblivion  :  a  fine  reflection  for  the  self-important. 

Turning  round,  I  see  my  good  IMussulmans  on  their  roofs 
with  feet  and  arms  crossed,  and  I  applaud  their  laziness. 
I  find  amoniT  them  an  Albanian  who  knows  a  little  Italian. 
I  tell  him  to  ask  them  if  they  are  happy,  and  if  I  can  be 
of  use  to  them ;  also,  whether  they  know  that  the  empress 
has  given  them  to  me.  They  make  answer  that  they  know 
in  general  that  they  have  been  parcelled  out,  but  they  do 
not  wholly  understand  what  it  means ;  that  they  are  happy 
now,  and  if  they  cease  to  be  so  they  shall  embark  on  the 
two  vessels  they  have  built  for  themselves  and  take  refuge 
with  the  Turks  in  Eoumania.  I  reply  that  I  like  lazy 
people,  but  that  I  wish  to  know  on  what  they  subsist. 
They  point  to  a  few  sheep  lying,  like  myself,  on  the  grass. 
I  bless  the  lazy.  They  show  me  their  fruit-trees,  and  say 
that  when  the  gathering  season  comes  the  kaimakan  comes 
round  from  Barczisarai  and  takes  half;  each  family  sells 
two  hundred  francs'  worth  a  year,  and  there  are  forty-six 
families  in  Parthenizza  and  Nikita,  another  little  property 
now  belonging  to  me,  the  Greek  name  signifying  victory. 
I  bless  the  lazy.  I  promise  to  prevent  their  being  harassed. 
They  bring  me  butter,  cheese,  and  milk  —  not  mares'  milk, 
as  it  is  among  the  Tartars.  I  bless  the  lazy,  and  return  to 
my  meditations. 

Once  more,  what  am  I  doing  here  ?  Am  I  a  Turkish 
prisoner  ?  Have  I  been  cast  upon  this  coast  by  shipwreck  ? 
Am  I  exiled,  hke  Ovid,  by  some  Court,  or  by  my  passions  ? 
I  search,  and  say :  Why,  not  at  all  I  After  my  children, 
and  two  or  three  women  whom  I  love,  or  think  I  love,  to 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE.  29 

madness,  it  is  my  gardens  which  give  me  the  greatest 
pleasure  in  life ;  there  are  few  as  fine.  I  delight  in  work- 
ing to  make  them  still  more  beautiful.  I  am  scarcely  ever 
in  them ;  I  have  never  been  there  in  the  early  llowering 
season,  when  all  the  little  forests  of  rare  shrubs  are  perfum- 
ing the  air.  I  am  two  thousand  leagues  from  all  that  now. 
Possessor  of  lands  on  the  Northern  Ocean,  I  am  here  in 
other  lands,  also  mine,  on  the  shores  of  the  Euxine.  A 
letter  from  the  empress  reached  me  from  a  distance  of 
eight  hundred  leagues.  She  remembered  our  conversations 
on  the  noble  ages  of  antiquity  and  she  proposed  to  me  to 
accompany  her  to  this  land  of  enchantment,  this  Taurica,  to 
which  she  restores  the  name,  and,  in  favour  of  my  taste  for 
Iphigenias  she  bestows  upon  me  the  site  of  Dian's  temple, 
where  the  daughter  of  Agamemnon  was  priestess. 

Forgetting  at  last  all  thrones,  dominations,  and  powers, 
I  suddenly  experience  one  of  those  delightful  annihilations 
that  I  love  so  much,  when  the  mind  rests  absolutely,  v/hen 
we  scarcely  know  that  we  exist.  What  is  the  soul  doing 
then  ?  I  do  not  know ;  one  tlimg  is  certain,  its  activity  is 
suspended ;  but  it  has  the  enjoyment  and  the  consciousness 
of  its  rest. 

After  that,  I  make  plans.  Blase  as  to  nearly  all  known 
things,  why  not  settle  myself  here  ?  I  will  convert  my 
Tartar  Mussulmans  to  the  juice  of  the  vine ;  I  will  give 
my  dwelling  the  look  of  a  palace,  to  be  seen  from  afar  by 
navigators.  I  will  build  eight  houses  for  vintagers,  with 
columns,  and  balustrades  to  hide  the  roofs.  I  planned  a 
plan  which  would  have  been  executed  incontinently  were 
it  not  for  the  war  to  which  our  festal  trip  gave  rise. 

What  a  pity  —  I  say  to  myself,  lying  here  —  that  the 
bigotry  of  the  Greek  religion  has  destroyed  the  noble  re- 
mains of  the  worship  of  the  gods,  so  favourable  as  it  is  to 

Ver.  7  Mem.  3 


so  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

the  imagination.  However,  these  fine  sites  do  still  rejoice 
the  eye  with  their  white  minarets,  their  tall,  slim  chimneys, 
shaped  like  needles,  a  species  of  Eastern  architecture  which 
gives  its  dainty  style  even  to  the  humblest  hut.  My  re- 
flections which  remind  me  of  the  ravages  of  time  make  me 
also  think  of  my  own  losses.  It  occurs  to  me  that  nothing 
here  below  remains  in  a  state  of  perfect  stagnation ;  unless 
an  empire  enlarges,  it  diminishes,  just  as  the  day  when  we  do 
not  love  more,  we  love  less  —  What  w^ord  was  that  I  said  ? 
Love !  Ah !  —  I  burst  into  tears ;  I  know  not  why  ;  but 
they  are  sweet,  —  an  overflowing  of  sensibility,  though  un- 
able to  determine  its  object.  At  this  moment,  when  so 
many  ideas  are  crossing  one  another  in  my  mind,  I  weep 
without  being  sorrowful ;  but  alas !  —  I  say  to  myself  as 
though  I  were  addressing  certain  persons  of  whom  I  often 
think  —  perhaps  I  am  sad,  perhaps  you  are  sad,  because  we 
are  parted  by  seas,  deserts,  remorse,  relatives,  meddlers, 
prejudices.  Perhaps  I  am  sad  for  you  who  have  loved  me 
and  never  told  me ;  whom  I  have  left  because  I  never 
divined  your  love.  Superstitious  slaves  of  duty,  perhaps  I 
am  sad  for  you.  The  love  of  poesy,  of  the  fields,  our  read- 
ings, our  saunterings,  a  thousand  secret  bonds  may  have 
united  us,  although  we  never  knew  it. 

My  tears  will  not  be  stanched.  Is  it  the  presentiment 
of  some  heart-rending  loss  that  I  shall  some  day  suffer  ?  I 
put  that  fearful  thought  away  from  me  ;  I  pray  to  God,  and 
say :  This  vague  melancholy,  like  that  we  feel  in  youth, 
does  it  not  foretell  me  some  celestial  object,  worthy  of  my 
worship,  which  will  forever  fix  my  way  in  life  ?  It  seems 
to  me  as  though  the  Future  desires  to  unveil  herself  to  me. 
Enthusiasm,  exaltation  are  so  nearly  alhed  to  the  power  of 
interpreting  oracles. 

Thus  did  the  picture  of  my  past  and  present  and  future 


MEMOIR   OF  THE    PRINCE    DE   EIGNE.  31 

loves  paint  itself  in  my  memory.  Would  that  I  could  so 
recall  the  recollections  of  friendship  !  I  have  had  friends, 
more  than  other  men,  because,  having  no  pretensions  to 
anything  of  any  kind,  my  history  is  in  no  way  extraordinary, 
and  my  merits  are  not  alarming.  Everywhere  I  meet  the 
social  friends  with  whom  one  sups  and  trifles  daily,  but 
have  I  ever  found  one  who  cares  for  me  enough  to  make  me 
feel  the  obligation  ?  Earnestly  do  I  desire  to  have  that 
obligation  to  others ;  some  have  had  it  to  me,  and  though 
they  little  felt  it,  I  still  had  the  pleasure  from  time  to  time 
of  making  them  ungrateful.  The  fear  of  being  ungrateful 
myself  makes  me  often  prefer  the  contrary  extreme.  A 
little  insincerity  in  that  luie  seems  to  me  very  pardonable. 
Without  weeping  over  humanity,  without  loving  or  hating 
men  too  much  (it  is  fatiguing  to  hate),  I  am  not  more  satisfied 
with  mankind  than  I  am  with  myself.  In  examining  my- 
self I  find  but  one  good  quality,  —  that  of  being  very  glad 
of  the  good  that  comes  to  others. 

I  judge  the  w^orld ;  I  watch  it  like  the  slides  of  a  magic- 
lantern  while  awaiting  the  moment  when  the  scythe  of  time 
shall  lay  me  low.  Nine  or  ten  campaigns  already  made,  a 
dozen  battles  or  encounters  seen  from  time  to  time,  flit  past 
me  like  a  dream.  I  think  of  the  nothingness  of  glory ; 
ignored,  forgotten,  envied,  attacked,  revoked  ;  yet  a  part  of 
my  life  —  I  say  to  myself  —  is  spent  in  seeking  to  lose  it 
(that  life)  in  chasing  glory.  I  say  nothing  against  my 
valour ;  that  is  brilliant  enough,  no  doubt ;  but  I  do  not  think 
it  is  pure  enough ;  there  is  clap-trap  in  it ;  I  play  too  much 
to  the  gallery.  I  prefer  the  valour  of  my  dear  good  Charles, 
who  never  looks  about  him  to  see  if  he  is  being  looked  at. 
When  I  examine  myself  further,  I  see  a  score  of  faults. — 
And  next  I  think  of  the  nothingness  of  ambition.  Death 
has  deprived  me,  or  will  soon  deprive  me,  of  the  favour  of 


32  MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE. 

several  great  soldiers  and  great  sovereigns.  Caprice,  in- 
constancy, malignity  may  make  me  lose  all  hopes  ;  intrigue, 
if  it  parts  me  from  my  soldiers,  may  cause  them  to  forget 
me.  But  here,  here,  without  regrets  for  the  past  or  fears  for 
the  future  I  let  my  existence  float  upon  the  current  of  my 
destiny.  I  laugh  at  my  paltry  merit  and  my  various  ad- 
ventures at  Court  and  with  the  army  ;  I  am  glad  I  am  no 
worse  than  I  am ;  and  I  congratulate  myself  especially 
on  the  great  talent  of  making  the  best  of  everythmg  for 
my  own  contentment. 

Child  of  nature,  and  perhaps  her  spoilt  child,  I  see  myself 
as  I  am  in  the  glassy  calm  of  tliat  vast  sea  which  reflects 
my  soul  as  a  mirror  reflects  the  features  of  a  face.  Already 
the  veil  of  night  is  beginning  to  obscure  the  day ;  the  sun 
is  awaited  on  the  horizon  of  another  hemisphere.  The 
sheep  which  browse  about  my  Turkish  carpet  bleat  to  their 
Tartar  masters,  who  gravely  descend  from  their  roofs  and 
shut  them  up  with  their  women,  whom  they  have  kept  con- 
cealed the  livelong  day.  The  criers  are  calling  to  the  mosque 
from  the  tops  of  their  minarets.  With  my  left  hand  I  feel 
for  the  beard  I  have  not ;  my  right  hand  I  lay  upon  my 
breast ;  I  bless  the  lazy,  and  I  leave  them,  as  much  as- 
tonished to  see  me  their  master  as  to  hear  that  I  wish  them 
to  be  always  their  own. 

I  collect  my  wits,  which  have  been  so  scattered  ;  I  gather 
together,  as  best  I  can,  my  incoherent  thoughts ;  I  look 
about  me  with  emotion  on  these  beautiful  scenes,  which  1 
may  never  see  again  and  which  have  caused  me  to  spend 
the  most  dehghtful  day  of  all  my  life.  A  fresh  breeze, 
springing  suddenly  up,  decides  me  against  the  boat,  which 
was  to  take  me  round  by  sea  to  Theodosia.  I  mount  a 
Tartar  horse,  and,  preceded  by  my  guide,  I  plunge  once 
more  into  the  hoiTors  of  the  night,  the  road,  the  torrents. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE   EIGNE.  33 

and  recross  the  famous  mountains  to  rejoin,  at  the  end 
of  forty-eight  hours,  their  imperial  Majesties  at  Kara-su- 
Bazaar. 

Oh,  Parthenizza !  witchmg  spot !  you  have  recalled  me  to 
my  true  self.  Parthenizza!  never  will  you  leave  my 
memory. 

To  the  Same. 

EnoM  Kara-su-Bazaar. 

I  have  quitted  meditation,  and  return  to  active  life. 
I  found  on  arriving  here  fresh  subjects  for  admiration  ;  but 
before  describing  them,  Madame  la  marquise,  I  wish  to  say 
a  word  to  you  about  fidelity.  Do  not  be  alarmed  by  that 
word  —  it  does  not  relate  to  you  or  nie.  It  concerns  a 
Tartar  barbarian  to  whom  I  was  confided  for  my  trip  in 
spite  of  the  bad  reputation  and  evil  looks  of  those  fallows. 
He  would  perhaps  have  robbed  and  beaten  me  had  he  met 
me,  but  as  1  was  confided  to  liis  care  he  was  ready  to  sacrifice 
his  life  to  defend  me.  I  escaped  out  of  his  sight  for  a 
few  moments,  while  carving  on  a  rock  about  thirty  paces 
from  the  sea  a  name  most  dear  to  my  heart;  he  looked 
about  for  me  everywhere,  and,  believing  me  murdered,  he 
was  about  to  set  fire  to  the  adjoining  village  while  waiting 
to  know  positively  what  had  become  of  me. 

On  my  return  trip  (in  charge  of  my  constable)  I  thought 
I  was  dreaming  when  I  saw  a  house  in  the  midst  of  an 
odoriferous  desert,  flat  and  green  as  a  billiard-table.  I 
thought  still  more  I  was  deluded  when  I  found  it  white, 
clean,  and  surrounded  with  cultivated  ground,  half  orchard 
half  vegetable-garden,  through  which  ran  the  purest  and 
most  rapid  of  brooks.  But  I  was  far  more  surprised  when 
from  the  doorway  issued  two  celestial  figures  dressed  in 
white,   who   proposed    to    me   to    seat    myself    at   a   table 


34  MEMOIR   OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE. 

covered  with  flowers,  on  wliicli  were  butter  and  cream.  I 
bethought  me  of  the  breakfasts  I  had  read  of  m  English 
novels.  These  were  the  daughters  of  a  rich  farmer  whom 
the  Eussian  minister  in  England  had  sent  to  Prince  Potem- 
kin,  to  make  attempts  at  agriculture  in  Taurica. 

I  now  return  to  admirations  and  marvels.  We  find  the 
seaports,  armies,  and  fleets  in  the  finest  condition.  Kherson 
and  Sevastopol  surpass  all  that  can  be  said  of  them.  Each 
day  is  marked  with  some  great  event.  Sometimes  a  cloud  of 
Cossacks  from  the  shores  of  the  Tanais  [the  Don]  manoeuvre 
around  us  after  their  fashion  ;  sometimes  the  Tartars  of  the 
Crimea,  faithless  formerly  to  their  khan,  Sahem-Guerei, 
because  he  wished  to  train  them  into  a  regiment,  have  them- 
selves formed  a  corps  to  meet  the  empress.  We  have  crossed 
during  many  days  vast,  solitary  regions,  from  which  her 
Majesty  has  driven  Zaporogua,  Budjak,  and  Nogais  Tartars, 
who,  ten  years  ago,  threatened  to  ravage  her  empire.  All 
these  places  were  furnished  with  magnificent  tents  for  break- 
fasts, lunches,  dinners,  suppers,  and  sleej)ing-rooms ;  these 
encampments,  decorated  with  Asiatic  splendour,  presented 
a  most  military  spectacle.  Deserted  regions  were  at  once 
transformed  into  fields,  groves,  villages  ;  already  they  are 
inhabited  by  regiments,  but  they  will  soon  be  the  home  of 
peasants,  attracted  to  them  by  the  excellence  of  the  soil. 
The  empress  has  left  in  each  chief  town  gifts  to  the  value  of 
a  hundred  thousand  roubles.  Every  day  that  we  remained 
stationary  was  marked  with  gifts  of  diamonds,  balls,  fire- 
works, and  illuminations  throughout  a  circuit  of  ten  leagues. 
Forests  on  fire  would  appear  upon  the  mountains,  then  the 
burning  bushes,  gradually  coming  nearer,  were  turned  into 
vast  pyres. 

One  other  little  remark  about  the  countries  we  are  cross- 
ing.    The   subjects   of  this   empire,  whom   those   of   other 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  35 

nations  are  kind  enough  to  pity  so  often,  care  nothing  for 
your  States-general ;  they  request  philosophers  not  to  en- 
lighten tliem,  and  the  great  lords  not  to  permit  them  to 
hunt  upon  their  lands.  In  spite  of  their  quibbles  about  the 
Holy  Spirit,  they  are  not  ill-treated  by  it,  and  are  more 
intelligent  than  people  think.  They  feel  a  need  to  kiss  the 
hands  of  their  popes,  and  prostrate  themselves  before  their 
sovereign  to  show  submission.  In  other  respects  they  are 
slaves  only  in  being  restrained  from  doing  harm  to  them- 
selves or  others ;  they  are  free  to  enrich  themselves,  which 
they  do  often,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  splendour  of  the  cos- 
tumes of  the  different  provinces.  The  empress,  who  is  not 
afraid  of  seeming  to  be  governed,  gives  to  those  whom  she 
employs  full  authority  and  her  utmost  confidence ;  she 
denies  no  right,  except  that  of  doing  evil.  She  justifies  her 
magnificence  on  the  ground  that  by  giving  money  she  ob- 
tains a  large  return.  She  justifies  the  great  number  of  offices 
she  has  created  in  her  provinces  by  declaring  that  in  that 
way  specie  is  made  to  circulate,  fortunes  are  increased,  and 
the  seigneurs  are  compelled  to  stay  on  their  estates,  instead 
of  flocking  to  Moscow  or  Petersburg.  If  she  has  built  in 
stone  two  hundred  and  thirty-seven  towns,  it  is,  she  says, 
because  villages  built  of  wood  are  always  burning  and  cost- 
ing her  a  great  deal.  If  she  has  created  a  splendid  fleet  in 
the  Black  Sea,  it  is  because  Peter  the  Great  loved  the  navy. 
She  has  always  some  such  modest  excuse  for  the  great  things 
which  she  does.  No  one  has  any  idea  what  a  pleasure  there 
is  in  accompanying  her. 

Adieu,  dear  marquise.  Already  I  hear  milhons  of  Allahs 
echoed  to  the  Orient  by  the  worthy  Mussulmans  for  our  safe 
return.  One  learns  to  howl  with  them,  in  time,  and  I  catch 
myself  occasionally  invoking  Mahomet  like  the  rest.  May 
he  shed  upon  your  lovely  face  the  dew  of  his  benedictions, 
that  it  may  ever  be  as  fresh  as  the  flowers  of  dawn. 


36  MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE. 

To  the  Same. 

Kaffa,  the  ancient  Theodosia. 

The  charm  still  lasts,  but  it  nears  its  end.  This  is  a  great 
city,  remarkable  for  its  mosques,  baths,  ancient  temples,  old 
commercial  marts,  and  harbour,  —  in  short,  for  the  remains 
of  a  grandeur  which  is  about  to  be  restored. 

I  entered  several  of  the  caf^s  and  several  shops.  I  saw 
foreigners  from  distant  lands:  Greeks,  Turks  from  Asia 
Minor,  manufacturers  of  weapons  from  Persia  and  the  Cau- 
casus. There  are  no  civil  people,  I  said  to  myself  as  I 
watched  them,  but  the  peoples  w^ho  are  not  civilized.  They 
all  assume  a  gentle  air,  which  is  more  or  less  respectful,  when 
they  meet.  Their  language  is  noble,  like  Greek  or  Spanish ; 
it  has  neither  the  hiss,  nor  the  coarseness,  nor  the  drawl,  nor 
the  sing-song,  nor  the  vulgarity  of  the  European  languages. 
A  Tartar  would  be  much  astonished,  on  arriving  at  the  city 
of  urbanity  and  grace  far  excellence,  to  hear  the  coachmen 
on  the  boulevard  talking  to  their  horses,  or  the  dames  of  the 
Market  conversing  with  their  neighbours.  And  what  a  con- 
trast between  the  insolence,  avarice,  and  filth  of  the  nations 
of  Europe  and  the  friendly  good-humour  and  cleanliness  of 
this  people !  Nothing  is  done  without  being  preceded  and 
followed  by  libations.  The  libation  with  which  the  barbers 
regale  their  customers  is  a  little  extraordinary ;  they  take 
their  heads  between  their  knees  and  let  the  water  of  a  foun- 
tain flow  over  them. 

I  have  seen  but  one  woman,  and  she  was  a  princess  of  the 
blood,  the  niece  of  the  last  khan,  Saheni-Guerei.  The 
empress,  before  whom  she  unveiled,  hid  me  behind  a  screen. 
She  was  beautiful  as  the  day,  and  wore  more  diamonds  than 
all  our  women  in  Vienna  put  together,  and  that  is  saying  a 
good  deal.     Otherwise  I  have  seen  no  female  faces  but  those 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  37 

of  a  battalion  of  Albanian  women,  from  a  little  Macedonian 
colony  established  at  Balaklava :  two  hundred  pretty  women 
or  girls,  with  muskets,  bayonets,  and  b.nces,  with  Amazonian 
breasts  and  long  hair  braided  gracefully,  who  came  to  meet 
us,  to  do  us  honour  and  not  from  curiosity.  There  are  no 
gapers  in  this  country  ;  gaping  belongs,  with  impertinence 
and  flattery,  to  civilization.  No  one  has  either  run  after  us 
or  run  away  from  us.  They  look  at  us  with  indifference, 
not  disdain,  and  even  with  a  sort  of  benevolence,  when  we 
stop  to  ask  questions. 

If  the  monks  were  not  beginning  to  be  persecuted  (the 
result  of  tolerance  in  the  philosophical  countries),  I  should 
say  thank  God  there  are  no  mendicants  or  capuchins  in 
these  lands.  The  worst  bed  of  the  poorest  Tartar  (none  of 
whom  ever  ask  or  ever  w^ant  charity)  is  a  fairly  handsome 
Turkish  carpet  with  cushions,  sjiread  upon  a  wide  board. 
The  new  population  of  this  superb  amphitheatre  on  the 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  will  be  a  very  happy  one ;  the 
former  inhabitants  who  lived  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
salt  marshes  were  constantly  exposed  to  the  plague.  If 
ennui,  which  insensibly  invades  society  through  the  wits  and 
the  gifted  women  who  have  entered  it,  if  this  ennui,  I  say, 
becomes  too  great  in  Paris,  even  in  your  salon,  escape,  dear 
marquise,  and  come  here;  I  will  receive  you  better  than 
my  predecessor  Thoas. 

To  the  Sa7ne. 

Tula. 

Alas  !  here  we  are  on  our  way  back.     Do  you  know  that  I 

was  on  the  point  of  loving  you  in  Asia,  and  of  writing  to  you 

from  Azov  ?     A  cursed  prudence  of  doctors  and  ministers  (in 

neither  of  whom  does  the  empress  believe)  prevented  our 

leavmg  Europe  —  if  what  we  have  lately  seen  can  be  called 

Europe,  for  it  resembles  it  little  enough.     I  knov/  it  is  not  the 


38  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

fashion  to  believe  travellers,  or  courtiers,  or  any  good  told 
of  Russia.  Even  those  Russians  who  are  vexed  at  not  having 
come  with  us  pretend  that  we  are  deceived,  and  deceiving. 
They  have  already  spread  about  the  ridiculous  story  that 
cardboard  villages  were  set  up  along  the  line  of  our  route  for 
hundreds  of  miles ;  that  the  vessels  and  cannons  were  painted 
images,  the  cavalry  horseless,  and  so  forth. 

For  the  last  two  months  I  have  been  throwing  money  out 
of  window ;  this  has  happened  to  me  before,  but  never  in 
precisely  the  present  way.  I  have  already  distributed,  it 
may  be,  millions,  and  this  is  how  it  is  done.  Beside  me,  in 
tlie  carriage,  is  a  great  green  bag,  like  the  one  you  will  put 
your  prayer-books  in  when  you  become  devout.  This  bag  is 
filled  with  imperials  —  coins  of  four  ducats  [a  gold  ducat,  two 
dollars].  The  inhabitants  of  the  villages  and  those  from  ten, 
fifteen,  and  twenty  leagues  round  line  our  route  to  see  the 
empress,  and  this  is  how  they  see  her.  A  good  quarter  of  an 
hour  before  she  passes,  they  lie  down  flat  on  their  stomachs 
and  do  not  rise  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  we  have  passed. 
'T  is  on  their  backs  and  on  their  heads  kissing  the  earth  that 
I  shower  a  rain  of  gold  while  passing  at  full  gallop,  and  this 
usually  happens  ten  times  a  day ;  my  hands  are  soiled  with 
my  beneficence.  I  have  become  the  grand-almoner  of  all  the 
Eussias.  He  of  France  throws  money  also  through  his 
window,  but  it  is  his  own. 

I  know  very  well  what  is  trickery :  for  example,  the 
empress,  who  cannot  rush  about  on  foot  as  we  do,  is  made 
to  believe  that  certain  towns  for  which  she  has  given  money 
are  finished ;  whereas  they  are  often  towns  without  streets, 
streets  without  houses,  and  houses  without  roofs,  doors,  or 
windows.  Nothing  is  shown  to  the  empress  but  shops  that 
are  well-built  of  stone,  colonnades  of  the  palaces  of  gov- 
ernors-general, to  forty-two  of  which  she  has  presented  silver 


MEMOIR    OF    THE    PRINCE    DE    LIGNE.  39 

services  of  a  liundred  covers.  In  tlie  capitals  of  the  provinces 
they  often  give  us  balls  and  suppers  for  two  hundred  persons. 
The  furs  and  gold  chains  of  the  wives  of  the  merchants,  and 
the  sort  of  grenadier-caps  the  people  wear  adorned  with 
pearls  show  wealth.  The  costumes  of  the  gentlemen  and 
ladies  in  these  vast  halls  are  a  fine  sight.  The  provinces  of 
the  East  wear  brown  and  gold  and  silver;  the  others  red  and 
sky-blue. 

In  this  place  [Tula,  still  famous  for  mathematical  instru- 
ments and  cutlery  of  all  kinds]  is  one  of  the  finest  manu- 
factories of  arms  that  can  be  seen  anywhere ;  besides  this, 
they  work  in  steel  nearly  as  well  as  they  do  in  England.  I 
am  loaded  with  presents  that  I  do  not  know  what  to  do 
with.  The  empress  buys  everything,  to  give  away  and  at  the 
same  time  to  encourage  manufacture.  I  have  a  stool,  an 
umbrella,  a  table,  a  cane,  a  damascened  dressing-case ;  all 
of  which  are  very  useful  to  me,  as  you  may  suppose,  and 
very  convenient  to  carry  about. 

*  'See, ' '  says  the  empress  to  me  sometimes,  pointing  to  fields 
in  the  governments  of  Karskoff  and  Kursh  as  well  cultivated 
as  in  England,  with  a  population  almost  as  numerous,  ''see 
how  the  Abbe  Chappe'  never  saw  anything  through  the 
wooden  windows  of  his  carriage,  closed  on  account  of  cold; 
and  how  wrong  he  was  in  saying  that  there  were  'nothing 
but  deserts  in  Russia.'  I  will  not  warrant  that  some  vil- 
lage seigneur,  abusing  his  power  (which  might  happen  any- 
where), may  not  have  produced,  whip  in  hand,  the  cries  of 
joy  to  di'own  the  cries  of  misery.  But  as  soon  as  such 
seigneurs  are  complained  of  to  the  governors  of  the  prov- 
inces, they  are  punished ;  and  certainly  the  hurrahs  we  have 
heard  along  our  route  were  shouted  heartily  and  with  very 
smiling  faces. 

'  Inventor  of  aerial  telegniphy.     His  first  attempt  was  made  in  1793. 


40  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

As  I  have  quitted  the  empress  from  time  to  time  and 
made  various  trips,  I  have  seen  many  things  that  the  Eus- 
sians  themselves  do  not  know:  superb  establishments  in 
process  of  building,  manufactories,  villages  well  built,  streets 
laid  out  in  lines,  surrounded  by  trees,  and  watered  by  brooks. 
All  that  I  tell  you  is  true;  because,  in  the  first  place,  I 
never  tell  lies  except  to  women  who  are  not  like  you; 
and  next,  because  no  one  here  reads  my  letters.  Besides, 
we  never  flatter  people  whom  we  see  from  sLx  in  the 
morning  till  ten  at  night;  on  the  contrary,  one  is  some- 
times out  of  temper  with  them  in  a  carriage.  ...  I  remem- 
ber one  day  we  were  talking  of  courage,  and  the  empress  said 
to  me :  "If  I  had  been  a  man  I  should  have  been  killed 
before  I  was  a  captain."  I  answered,  "  I  think  not,  Madame, 
for  I  still  live."  I  noticed  that  after  taking  some  time  to 
understand  what  I  meant,  she  laughed  softly  to  herself  on 
perceiving  that  I  had  corrected  her  for  thinking  herself  more 
brave  than  I  and  so  many  others.  Another  time  I  was  dis- 
puting with  her  very  seriously  about  the  Court  of  France ; 
and  as  she  seemed  to  be  putting  faith  in  certain  pamphlets 
that  were  being  circulated  in  foreign  countries,  I  said  to  her 
almost  sharply :  "  Madame,  they  lie  at  the  iSTorth  about  the 
West,  and  at  the  West  about  the  North ;  we  should  no  more 
believe  the  sedan-bearers  of  Versailles  than  your  isvostchiks 
in  Petersburg." 

We  look  upon  the  rest  of  our  journey  as  a  trifle ;  un- 
happily, we  have  only  four  hundred  leagues  more  to  do. 
We  have  required  throughout  six  hundred  horses  for  each 
relay.  All  the  carriages  are  filled  with  peaches  and  oranges ; 
our  valets  are  drunk  with  champagne,  and  I  am  dying  with 
hunger,  for  everything  is  cold  and  detestable  at  the  empress's 
table.  She  never  sits  there  long,  and  if  she  has  anything 
agreeable  or  useful  to  say  she  does  it  so  slowly  that  nothing 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE.  41 

is  hot  except  the  water  we  drink.  One  of  the  charms  of 
this  country  is  that  the  summers  are  more  scorching  than 
they  are  in  Provence.  In  the  Crimea  I  came  near  suffocat- 
ing from  the  fumes  of  the  brazier  one  breathes.  Another 
charm  of  the  country  is  that  we  get  no  news  of  your  httle 
Europe  from  any  of  you.  I  do  not  beheve  my  letters  reach 
you ;  and  I  shall  receive  none  from  you  if,  as  I  hope,  war 
wiU  be  declared  one  of  these  days  with  the  good  Mahome- 
tans. I  am  in  haste  to  fight,  my  dear  marquise,  that  I 
may  see  you  all  the  sooner;  meantime  I  adore  you  as  a 
divinity  without  seeing  you. 

To  the  Same. 

Moscow. 

Here  is  one  more  letter.  This  city,  which  gives  me  in 
some  respects  an  idea  of  Ispahan,  looks  as  if  five  or  sLx  hun- 
dred country  chateaus'  of  great  lords  had  come,  on  rollers, 
with  their  villages,  to  unite  and  live  together.  Look  in  the 
geographies,  dictionaries,  and  books  of  travel  for  all  that 
relates  to  Moscow  and  say  I  wrote  it  to  you.  What  you 
will  not  find  there  is  that  the  greatest  seigneurs  of  the 
empire,  tired  of  the  Court,  are  living  here,  finding  fault  and 
growling  at  their  ease.  The  empress  only  knows  of  this  in 
bulk  and  does  not  want  to  hear  of  it  in  detail ;  she  does  not 
like  the  police  and  their  system  of  domestic  spying.  "  What 
do  you  think  of  these  gentlemen  ? "  she  said  to  me.  "  Fine 
ruins,"  I  replied,  looking  at  three  or  four  former  grand-cham- 
berlains, generals-in-chief,  etc.  "  They  do  not  like  me  much," 
she  said,  "I  am  not  the  fashion  in  Moscow.  Perhaps  I  was 
wrong  towards  some  of  them ;  there  may  have  been  mis- 
understandings." 

The  empress  was  no  longer  Cleopatra  at  Alexandria; 
besides,  C«sar  had  left  us  and  gone  home.  Eomance  had 
disappeared  and  left  the  sad  reality.     Alexis  Orloff  had  the 


42  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  EIGNE. 

courage  to  tell  her  Imperial  Majesty  that  famine  had  ap- 
peared in  several  of  the  provinces.  The  fetes  were  stopped. 
Beneficence  displaced  magnificence;  luxury  yielded  to 
necessity.  No  more  money  was  thrown,  it  was  now  dis- 
tributed. The  torrents  of  champagne  ceased  flowing ;  thou- 
sands of  bread-carts  succeeded  the  boat-loads  of  oranges.  A 
cloud  obscured  for  a  moment  the  august  and  serene  brow  of 
Cathekine  the  Great  :  she  shut  herself  up  with  two  of  her 
ministers^  and  only  recovered  her  gayety  as  she  got  into  the 
carriage. 

If  you  knew  our  archbishop  you  v/ould  love  him  distract- 
edly, and  he  would  return  your  love.  He  is  named  Plato,  and 
is  worth  much  more  than  the  other,  whom  they  call  divine. 
What  proves  to  me  that  this  one  is  Plato  the  human  is  that 
yesterday,  when  leaving  his  garden,  Princess  Galitzin  asked 
him  for  his  blessing,  and  he  gathered  a  rose,  with  which  he 
gave  it  to  her. 

If  I  were  a  La  Eochefoucauld  or  an  Albon,  or  even  a 
young  man  of  the  Court,  for  they  are  beginning  to  be 
learned,  I  would  tell  you  of  the  culture  of  the  soil  and  the 
finances  of  the  empire ;  but  I  have  not  the  honour  of  under- 
standing such  matters.  Oh !  as  to  finances,  I  do  know 
something  of  those ;  I  know  that  for  sturgeon  of  the  Volga, 
veal  of  Archangel,  fruits  of  Astrakan,  ices,  confectionery,  and 
wine  of  Constantia  I  have  paid  to  the  crown  enormous 
sums. 

Ask  pardon  for  me  of  your  pedants,  tlie  enemies  of  abuses ; 
I  am  now  an  abuse  of  this  country  and  I  find  myself  all 
the  better  for  it,  and  others  too.  Our  abuses  in  the  good 
and  true  monarchies  are  of  great  benefit  to  the  many ;  sup- 
press them  and  you  will  see  the  Pugatcheffs  ^  revive.     Alay 

1  Pugatcheff :  the  leader  of  a  rebellion  which  threatened  to  be  a  re- 
volution in  Russia. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  43 

Heaven  preserve  you  from  that !  but  you  are  rushing  towards 
it  with  great  strides.  It  might  perhaps  have  been  better 
never  to  have  taken  M.  de  Caloune ;  but  he  ought  certainly 
to  have  been  allowed  to  finish  what  he  began.  An  able 
man,  who  knows  what  he  is  talking  about,  said  to  rue  the 
other  day  that  the  Deficit  which  had  turned,  very  inoppor- 
tunely, the  head  of  your  good  king,  was  a  mere  washer- 
woman's bill,  to  be  paid  in  a  week  if  desired.  Had  society 
never  sounded  that  tocsin  against  the  Court,  had  the  queen 
never  pardoned  those  pretty  little  Parisians  for  screaming 
against  her  when  she  did  not  get  them  a  bishopric  or  a  regi- 
ment for  their  lovers,  the  dangerous  and  ridiculous  discon- 
tent of  the  present  moment  would  never  have  come  about. 

It  seems  to  me  now  as  though  I  were  to  see  you  to- 
morrow or  the  day  after.  I  have  already  come  eighteen 
hundred  leagues  nearer  to  you ;  there  are  but  twelve  hun- 
dred more  to  reach  you.  Therefore,  au  plaisir  de  vous 
revoir,  dear  marquise,  or,  to  write  you  from  Constantinople, 
should  these  affairs  continue  to  embroil  themselves.  I  say 
nothing  about  the  state  of  my  heart.  Yours  is  a  lottery ; 
I  have  put  into  it,  and  I  have  paid  for  my  tickets  in 
ready-money ;  on  one  is  written  "  admiration,"  on  another 
"adoration,"  on  the  third  "joy  of  my  life." 

I  really  think  I  am  beginning  to  be  a  trifle  precieux  ;  and 
that  is  neither  in  your  style  nor  in  mine.  This  certainly 
has  an  air  of  the  map  of  the  Pays  du  Tendre,  but  we  should 
lose  ourselves,  you  and  I,  in  that  country.  All  hail  this 
land  if  we  were  here  together.  It  is  better  to  be  Tartarian 
than  barbarous,  and  that  is  what  you  are  very  often  to  your 
adoring  Court.  Eemember  him  who  is  most  worthy  to  be- 
long to  it ;  though  lovers  are  always  oppressive ;  those  in 
good  faith  are  too  interesting ;  those  who  play  at  love  are 
too  interested.     I  like  my  condition  of  foreigner  everywhere ; 


44  MEMOIR   OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

Frenchman  in  Austria,  Austrian  in  France,  and  Eussian 
in  all  countries.  That  is  the  way  to  succeed  and  to  make 
one's  self  happy. 

The  moment  has  come  to  quit  fable  for  history,  the  East 
for  the  North.  I  keep  the  South  in  my  heart  for  you  — 
what  think  you  of  that  piquant  little  fancy  ?  It  has  at  least 
the  merit  of  being  truthful. 


III. 

1787-1788. 
THE  WAR   OF  RUSSIA  AND   AUSTRIA  AGAINST  TURKEY. 

[War  between  Eussia  and  Turkey  was  declared  in  the 
autumn  of  1787,  the  Porte  being  the  aggressor  by  imprison- 
ing the  Eussiau  ambassador,  A  secret  agreement  had  been 
entered  into  by  the  empress  and  Joseph  II.  during  the 
Crimean  journey  ;  but  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  believing  that 
the  emperor  would  be  slow  in  declaring  war  on  his  side, 
asked  and  obtained  permission  to  serve  meantime  as  general 
in  the  Eussian  army  under  Prince  Potemkiu,  with  the 
additional  duty  of  keeping  the  emperor  informed  of  the 
movements  of  his  allies.  He  joined  that  army  then  en- 
camped at  Elisabeth-Gorod,  north  of  Kherson,  in  November, 
1787,  the  fortress  of  Oczakow  being  to  the  south,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Dnieper,  where  it  falls  into  the  Black  Sea. 
He  soon  became  discouraged  at  the  lethargic  conduct  of  the 
war;  and  after  fretting  over  it  for  more  than  a  year  he 
secretly  requested  the  emperor  to  recall  him.  During  the 
campaign  of  1789  he  was  second  in  command  of  the  Aus- 
trian army  under  the  emperor  and  Mar^chal  de  Lacy,  and 
to  him  was  owing,  in  a  great  measure,  the  taking  of 
Belgrade. 

The  story  of  this  war  is  given  chiefly  in  the  letters  that 

he  wrote  to  Joseph  II.   during  his   campaign  with  Prince 

Potemkin.     In  his  own  narrative  prefacing  those  letters  he 

gives  a  fidler  account  than  that  contained  in  the  letters  to 
Ver.  7  Mem.  4 


46  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

Mme.  de  Coigny  of  the  origin  of  tlie  war,  and  of  how  the 
emperor  was  enticed  and  persuaded  to  take  part  in  it.  A 
series  of  letters  to  Comte  Louis-Phihppe  de  S(5gur,  French 
ambassador  at  Petersburg,  contain  (vol.  vii.  of  his  Works) 
a  more  lively  and  personal  account  of  the  prince's  stay  with 
Potemkin  than  is  given  in  his  letters  to  the  emperor 
(vol.  xxiv.). 

The  Prince  de  Ligne's  eldest  son,  Charles,  served  with  the 
emperor  during  the  campaign  of  1788,  and  distinguished 
himself  greatly  at  the  taking  of  Sabacz,  After  the  death 
of  the  emperor  in  February,  1790,  he  joined  the  Eussian 
army  then  operating  on  the  Danube  under  Mar^chal 
Suvaroff,  and  again  distinguished  himself  at  the  taking  of 
Ismail.  After  the  death  of  Joseph  II.,  the  Prince  de  Ligne 
returned  to  the  Low  Countries,  then  in  revolt  against  Austria 
under  the  influence  of  the  French  Eevolution.  He  was  the 
hereditary  Seneschal  or  Governor  of  the  province  of  Hain- 
ault,  of  which  Mons  is  the  capital  town,  Beloeil  bemg  within 
a  short  distance  of  it.] 

Nothing  in  the  way  of  relation  can  have  a  greater  stamp 
of  truth  than  what  I  shaU  here  say  about  tlie  campaign  of 
1788  against  the  Turks.  My  letters  to  Joseph  II.  are  them  • 
selves  its  history.  They  need  only  to  be  sewn  together,  with 
preambles  and  a  few  portraits  and  anecdotes,  to  make  them 
a  very  interesting  whole. 

The  enemies  of  Prince  Potemkin  had  assured  his  sove- 
reign that  her  army  was  only  on  paper  ;  they  even  denied 
the  existence  of  the  light-horse  cavalry.  So  that  when,  on 
the  Borysthenes,  fifty  or  sixty  squadrons  galloped  to  meet 
her  all  glittering  with  silver  and  steel,  she  was  amazed 
at  the  sight.  She  said  to  me  :  "  Those  wicked  people  !  how 
they  tried  to  deceive  me !     Why,  there  is  enough  to  snap 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  47 

our  fingers  at  the  Turks."  Then,  looking  at  the  portrait  of 
Peter  I.  as  usual,  she  said,  with  an  air  that  dictated  my 
answer,  "  What  would  he  say  ?  what  would  he  do  ? "  It 
will  not  be  doubted  that  my  desire  to  please  and  to  make 
war  inspired  my  reply.  "  But  the  French  ?  "  she  said.  "  They 
have  just  made  their  pubUc  confession,"  I  answered,  "  in 
that  Deficit  which  Necker  has  announced  to  the  Notables. 
Poor  devils  !  they  may  perhaps  have  a  revolution.  Besides, 
M.  de  Vergennes  is  dead,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Toulouse, 
whom  they  talk  of  as  the  next  prime  minister,  has  no  house 
of  business  of  his  own  in  Constantinople."  "  But  the 
Prussians  ? "  she  said.  "  Let  us  make  haste,"  I  replied ;  "  the 
emperor  can  take  Belgrade,  and  your  Majesty  Oczakow, 
Bender,  and  Akermann  before  King  William  knows  that 
there  is  any  question  of  war." 

Prince  Potemkin,  who  was  dying  to  command  an  army 
in  order  to  get  the  grand  cordon  of  Saint  George,  talked 
to  me  incessantly  about  the  war.  The  emperor  arrived  at 
Kherson  in  my  carriage,  which  I  had  sent  for  him,  and  said 
to  me  the  next  day:  "It  seems  to  me  these  people  want 
war.  Are  they  ready  ?  I  don't  think  they  are ;  and,  in 
any  case,  I  am  not.  And  what  do  they  expect  to  get  ?  I 
have  just  seen  their  fleets  and  their  fortresses,  and  they  are 
only  sketched  out  to  throw  dust  in  one's  eyes.  Nothing  is 
solid  ;  it  has  all  been  done  in  a  hurry,  and  very  expensively, 
to  humbug  the  empress."  I,  who  did  not  see  so  accurately 
as  he,  and  was  dazzled  by  the  passing  of  so  much  artillery 
and  such  superb  regiments  and  by  what  I  was  told  of 
magazines  and  munitions,  assured  him  that  I  thought  the 
Russians  were  ready.  Wlmt  was  singular  is  that  the  em- 
peror was  seduced  himself  by  the  same  sights,  of  which  he 
was  not  the  dupe  when  he  saw  them  alone.  The  cleverness 
of  showing  them  again  in  presence  of  the  empress,  the  quan- 


48  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE  EIGNE. 

tity  and  importance  of  the  military  objects  presented  daily 
before  him,  the  magic  of  this  journey  of  six  thousand  versts, 
seemed  to  proclaim  a  power  he  blamed  himself  for  having 
misjudged. 

Potemkin  thought  that  the  moment  had  come  to  explain 
matters  to  the  emperor.  He  went  to  see  him  one  morning 
and  told  him  about  the  pretended  wrongs  the  Court  of  Eussia 
had  received  from  the  Porte  —  which  was  being  insulted 
constantly  by  M.  de  Bulgakoff  and  a  crowd  of  little  scamps 
of  consuls,  of  whom  the  Porte  complained  quite  mildly. 
The  emperor  answered  w^ith  generalities,  personal  attach- 
ment to  the  empress,  fidelity  to  his  engagements,  and  so 
forth.  Prince  Potemkin  is  timid,  and  easily  embarrassed. 
He  did  not  say  all  that  he  w^anted  to  say,  so  he  begged  me 
to  speak  to  the  emperor  and  complete  that  which  he  had 
only  begun. 

I  did  not  fail  to  do  so.  "I  don't  see  exactly  what  he 
wants,"  said  his  Majesty.  "  It  seems  to  me  that  when  I  do 
as  much  as  I  did  in  helping  them  to  get  the  Crimea,  that 
ought  to  be  enough.  What  would  they  do  for  me  if  I 
should  have  war  with  Prussia  some  day  or  other  ? "  "  Every- 
thing, Sire,"  I  said ;  "  at  least  they  promise  it ;  they  even 
say  everything  your  Majesty  may  want  in  this  affair." 
"  What  I  want  is  Silesia,  and  war  with  Turkey  will  not  give 
me  that,"  he  replied.     "  WeU,  w^e  '11  see ;  we  '11  see." 

I  have  related  elsewhere  all  that  was  done  to  intoxicate 
the  empress.  A  cloud  of  Cossacks  from  the  Don  arrived  like 
a  whirlwind  and  enveloped  our  carriage  in  the  deserts  of 
Perekop.  The  empress  supposed  them  eight  hundred  leagues 
distant.  An  armament  of  Tartar  guards,  all  young  Mourzas, 
with  splendid  figures  superbly  dressed,  appeared  as  suddenly 
to  escort  the  empress  on  her  approach  to  Taurica.  And  when, 
close  to  Inkermann  they  parted,  as  if  by  a  fairy  wand,  into 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  49 

two  columns  and  revealed  the  fleet  of  Sevastopol,  this  final 
draught  of  champagne  went  to  her  head.  She  rose  suddenly, 
during  dinner,  looked  at  us  with  fire  in  her  eyes,  and  said  :  "  I 
drink  to  the  health  of  my  best  friend,"  motioning  to  the  em- 
peror. Kissing  of  hand  on  his  part.  Embrace  on  hers.  Great 
hopes  of  war  in  me  and  the  Prince  of  Nassau.  Embarrassment 
in  S^gur,  fearing  to  play  a  poor  role  in  it  all ;  philosophic 
indifference  in  Fitz-Herbert,  one  of  the  most  amiable  of  Encr- 
lishmen ;  uncertainty  in  Comte  Cobenzl,  trying  to  read  in 
the  eyes  of  the  emperor;  and  great  curiosity  in  all  the 
courtiers. 

Prince  Potemkin,  who  had  kissed  hands  also,  and  made 
believe  weep  with  joy  and  gratitude,  kept  up  the  salvos  of 
the  fleet  incessantly,  in  order  to  keep  our  heads  turned. 

"  Do  you  think,"  said  the  empress  to  nle,  one  day,  "  that  if 
your  dear  master,  my  dear  ally,  were  hindered  by  some  of 
his  neighbours,  I  could  carry  on  this  affair  by  myself  ? " 
"  Undoubtedly,  Madame,"  I  replied.  "  But  he  will  want  to 
share  your  glory,  much  more  than  your  conquests,  for,  thank 
God !  we  are  in  need  of  nothing."  "  What  have  you  done  ? 
what  have  you  done  ? "  cried  Cobenzl,  to  whom  I  told  all 
this.  "  Prince  Potemkin  is  too  much  in  a  hurry  ;  there  are 
many  political  considerations  to  be  faced.  After  that,  we 
may  see  about  it." 

"If  it  were  not  for  France,"  Potemkin  said  to  me,  fre- 
quently, "  we  might  begin  at  once."  "  So  I  think,"  I  re- 
plied ;  "  but  your  infantry,  cannon,  munitions,  magazines  ? " 
"  All  ready,"  he  replied  ;  "  I  have  only  to  say  to  a  hundred 
thousand  men  :  March  ! " 

"  What  is  this  mania  of  yours,"  I  said  to  Sdgur,  "  for  pro- 
tecting such  ignorant  people,  and  such  bad  company  as  those 
Turks  ?  "  "  Balance  of  Europe  ;  justice,  for  they  have  given 
no  real  cause  for  complaint,  though  we  are  told  they  have 


50  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

every  day ;  our  commerce  in  Smyrna ;  the  seaports  of  the 
Levant,  —  those  are  good  reasons  enough,  it  seems  to  me," 
replied  S^gur. 

"  What  are  all  these  romances  ?  "  said  the  emperor,  as  our 
journey  was  nearing  its  end.  "  They  want  to  go  to  Con- 
stantinople. What  are  we  to  do  with  Constantinople  ?  " 
"  Make  it  a  Greek  republic,"  I  said,  laughing.  "  Don't  you 
remember,"  said  the  emperor,  "  the  joke  of  the  late  King  of 
Prussia,  who  wrote  to  d'Alembert,  that  the  name  of  Constan- 
tine  given  to  a  little  grand-duke  meant  that  they  would  seat 
his  little  person  on  the  throne  of  Constantine  ?  That  has  not 
put  an  end  to  the  project,"  he  added.  "  But  you  may  believe 
me  that  when  we  get  there  and  have  to  take  it,  they  will  be 
more  embarrassed  than  I.  However,  that  woman  is  lucky." 
See  how  cabinets  and  caf^s  deceive  themselves !  They  and 
the  world  at  large  imagine  wiliness  and  diplomacy  in  every- 
thing and  judge  the  actors  wrongly.  The  meeting  of  the 
King  of  Poland  with  the  empress,  and  hers  with  the  Em- 
peror of  Austria,  passed  exactly  as  I  have  related  them. 

Catherine  again  showed  me  the  portrait  of  Peter  the  Great 
on  her  snuffbox,  and  said :  "  What  would  he  say  ?  what 
would  he  do  ? "  "  He  would  atone,"  I  said,  "  for  his  hor- 
rible capitulation  on  the  Pruth."  Thus  it  was  that  I  con- 
tributed, without  suspecting  the  result,  to  the  harm  that  has 
been  done.  Thus  the  gallantry  of  S^gur,  the  piquant  in- 
difference of  Fitz-Herbert,  which  only  made  his  little  praise 
the  more  delicate,  the  flattery  of  some,  the  sycophancy  of 
others,  intoxicated  this  great  princess.  It  only  proves  the 
undesirableness  of  women  upon  thrones,  even  more  than  in 
society.  Homage  is  so  lavished  upon  them  that  they  make 
no  distinctions  as  to  its  value ;  they  receive  it  all  as  sover- 
eigns. The  Russian  bishops  and  archbishops,  flatterers  by 
profession,   awaited    the   empress   at   the   doors  of    all  the 


MEMOIR  OF   THE  PRINCE   DE  EIGNE.  51 

cliurches,  incense,  moral  and  physical,  in  hand,  and  told  her, 
in  the  name  of  God,  that  she  was  invincible,  and  that  her 
subjects  were  in  great  prosperity;  the  truth  being  that 
throughout  her  empire  a  frightful  famine  was  raging,  and 
that  her  infantry,  whom  Prince  Potemkin  took  good  care 
not  to  show  her,  had  been  so  ruined  by  mismanagement, 
cheatery,  and  theft,  that  it  actually  did  not  have  the  muni- 
tions of  war. 

I  was  on  the  point  of  leaving  Petersburg  in  the  middle  of 
July,  when  the  empress  told  me  she  was  expecting  a  courier 
from  Constantinople  with  news  of  the  outbreak  of  the  war, 
or  else  of  the  overthrow  of  the  Grand  Vizir.  I  waited  a 
month  longer.  War  did  not  come.  I  was  to  leave  on  a 
Tuesday.  Sunday  we  heard  that  M.  de  Bulgakoff  [Russian 
ambassador  to  the  Porte]  was  in  the  Seven  Towers.  I  never 
was  so  pleased  since  I  came  mto  the  world.  I  went  to  see 
her  Majesty  to  congratulate  her.  What  was  my  astonish- 
ment to  hear  her  say :  "  I  shall  defend  myself,  but  I  can  do 
no  more.  I  am  attacked.  I  shall  do  the  best  I  can."  I 
could  only  suppose  that  Prince  Potemkin  had  written  her 
depressing  and  alarming  letters,  as  if  the  Turks  were  coming 
to  burn  Czarsko-zelo,  and  also  that  he  did  not  have  every- 
thing as  ready  as  he  had  said  he  had. 

The  empress  asked  me  what  I  thought  the  emperor 
would  do.  "  Can  you  doubt,  Madame,"  I  said,  "  that  he 
will  promptly  send  you  his  good  wishes,  and  perhaps  his 
troops  ?  but  as  the  former  are  more  portative  than  the 
latter,  I  think  his  letter  will  come  first."  In  fact  I  so  little 
expected  the  troops  to  arrive  promptly  that  after  commit- 
ting many  a  folly  in  my  life  I  now  committed  a  stupidity : 
namely,  that  of  requesting  his  Majesty,  Joseph  II.,  to 
allow  me  to  be  employed  for  him  in  the  Russian  army, 
and  to  correspond  with  him  from  there,  in  order  that  plans 


52  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

for  the  campaign,  the  concordance  of  the  two  empires  and 
the  various  enterprises  might  be  concerted,  consulted  over, 
and  executed  conjointly.  Too  late  I  heard  that  he  was 
about  to  open  the  campaign  with  100,000  men,  and  that 
I  was  appointed  lieutenant-general-in-chief,  with  the  com- 
mand of  the  artillery,  and  that  of  the  whole  army  in  the 
absence  of  the  emperor  and  Mardchal  de  Lacy.  I  tried  to 
withdraw  my  request.  Too  late  !  the  empress  was  not  will- 
ing; the  emperor  took  me  at  my  word.  I  reached  the 
Eussian  army  Nov.  1,  1787,  and  then  begins  the  period  of 
my  correspondence  with  the  emperor. 

I  am  confiding ;  I  always  believe  that  people  like  me.  I 
thought  that  Prince  Potemkin,  who  had  so  often  assured 
me  of  his  regard,  would  be  charmed  to  see  me.  I  did  not 
notice  his  embarrassed  manner  when  I  first  met  him.  I  fell 
on  his  neck  and  asked:  "When  shall  we  take  Oczakow?" 
"Eh,  my  God,"  he  said,  "there  are  18,000  men  in  the  gar- 
rison, and  I  have  not  as  many  in  my  whole  army.  I  lack 
everything ;  I  am  the  most  unfortunate  man  if  God  does 
not  help  me."  —  "  They  told  me  you  had  already  begun  the 
siege,  and  I  have  travelled  night  and  day  to  get  here." 
"  Alas  ! "  he  said,  "  please  God  the  Tartars  may  not  come 
down  here  and  put  everything  to  fire  and  sword.  God  has 
saved  me  so  far  (I  shall  never  forget  it) ;  He  has  permitted 
that  I  should  gather  what  troops  I  have  behind  the  Bog 
[river  flowing  into  the  Euxine].  It  is  a  miracle  that  I  have 
kept  what  territory  I  have  till  now."  "  Where  are  the 
Tartars  ? "  I  asked.  "  Why,  everywhere,"  replied  the  prince. 
"  Besides,  there 's  a  Seraskier  with  a  great  many  Turks  near 
Akermann,  12,000  in  Bender,  the  Dniester  guarded,  and 
6000  in  Choczim." 

There  was  not  a  word  of  truth  in  all  this  ;  but  how  could 
I  suppose  he  meant  to  deceive  one  of  whom  I  believed  he 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  53 

was  in  need  ?  If  I  was  unfortunate  in  the  wliole  of  this 
politico-military  mission  I  deserved  it.  I  was,  as  Mar^chal 
Neipperg  said  at  the  peace  of  1739,  like  Lucifer,  hurled 
down  by  my  pride,  for  I  thought  that  I  commanded  the 
two  Eussian  armies. 

I  told  the  prince  that  I  had  dissuaded  the  empress  from 
sending  a  fleet  to  the  Mediterranean,  which  would  cost  a 
great  deal  and  yet  not  serve  the  purpose  in  hand.  Though 
she  told  me  this  project  the  moment  that  she  conceived  it 
he  wanted  me  to  believe  that  it  was  his.  Some  days  later, 
forgetting  this,  he  told  me  that  he  had  written  to  the 
empress  not  to  send  that  fleet.  "But  that  is  just  how  she 
acts,  that  woman,"  he  said,  "  especially  when  I  am  not 
there ;  always  gigantically !  And  why  did  she  answer 
Prussia  so  gruffly  when  he  offered  her  thirty  thousand  men 
and  money  ?     Always  her  cursed  vanity  ! " 

"Here,"  I  said  to  the  prince,  "is  a  letter  from  the 
emperor  in  which  is  a  plan  for  the  whole  war.  It  shows 
the  operations  in  the  mass ;  it  is  for  your  different  corps 
to  detail  it  all,  according  to  circumstances.  His  Majesty 
instructs  me  to  ask  you  exactly  what  you  propose  doing." 
The  prince  replied  that  he  would  give  his  plan  to  me  the 
next  day  in  writmg.  I  waited  one,  two,  three,  eight  days, 
fifteen  days.  At  last  his  plan  of  campaign  was  sent  to  me, 
and  I  never  had  any  other.  Here  it  is:  "With  the  help 
of  God,  I  shall  attack  everything  that  comes  between  the 
Bog  and  the  Dniester." 

At  last  [June,  1788]  I  found  a  lucky  pretext  to  get  away 
from  that  encampment  of  filth  at  Elisabeth ;  another  week 
and  I  should  have  died  of  it.  The  prince  was  sending  me 
to  the  devil.  Sometimes  we  were  on  good  terms,  sometimes 
on  bad ;  often  at  daggers  drawn,  and  then  agaia  I  was  a 
prime   favourite,   playiag,  talking,  or  saying   nothing ;  but 


54  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

always  on  the  watch  till  six  in  the  morning  to  get  him 
to  utter  some  reasonable  word  that  I  could  send  for  the 
emperor's  guidance.  At  last,  I  could  bear  no  longer  the 
fantastic  moods  of  this  spoilt  child;  worn-out  by  such 
horrible  and  unheard-of  inaction,  I  went  to  see  why 
Mar^chal  Eomanzow  [commanding  one  wing  of  the  Eus- 
sian  army  at  Jassy]  was  not  doing  more  than  Prince 
Potemkin ;  having  gone  through  my  mourning  with  the  one, 
I  hoped  to  get  something,  at  least,  from  the  other. 

The  marshal,  as  amiable  as  the  prince  was  surly,  over- 
whelmed me  with  caresses  and  promises.  The  pair  were 
only  agreed  on  one  point,  and  that  was  to  deceive  the 
emperor  and  not  begin  their  campaigns  till  July,  by  which 
time  they  expected  that  the  whole  Ottoman  force  would 
have  flung  itself  upon  the  Austrians.  I  did  not  even  suc- 
ceed in  quarrelling  with  Piomanzow,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  I  proved  to  him  he  had  made  me  six  false  promises. 
He  pressed  me  in  his  arms,  laughed,  wept,  pitied  himself 
and  me,  and  went  on  with  his  little  tricks  as  before. 

I  returned  to  the  prince  and  his  melancholy  army ;  he 
being  then  at  Alexandre wska,  not  knowing  how  to  begin 
his  campaign,  having  been  fifteen  days  in  crossing  the  Bog, 
and  making,  since  then,  the  very  shortest  marches  he  could 
manage. 

It  was  at  the  camp  of  Novo  Gregori  that  we  heard  the 
news  of  the  [naval]  victory  of  the  Prince  of  Nassau  over 
the  capitan-pacha.  The  prince  sent  for  me,  embraced  me, 
and  said :  "  This  comes  from  G-od.  Look  at  that  church ; 
yesterday  I  consecrated  it  to  Saint  George,  my  patron,  and 
the  news  of  this  victory  at  Kinbourn  comes  the  next  day." 
At  the  end  of  several  weeks  of  marching  and  counter- 
marching about  a  bridge  which  they  did  not  know  where 
to  place  to  cross  that  cursed  river,  v/e  again  found  ourselves 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  55 

on  the  heights  of  Novo  Gregori,  where  we  received  the 
news  of  two  more  naval  victories  of  the  Prince  of  Nassau. 
"  Well,  my  friend,"  said  the  prince  to  me,  flinging  himself 
on  my  breast,  "  what  did  I  tell  you  of  Novo  Gregori  ? 
Here  it  is  again.  Is  it  not  signal  ?  I  am  the  petted  child 
of  God"  [V enfant  gate].  Those  were  his  very  words;  and 
I  repeat  them  liere  to  make  known  the  most  extraordinary 
man  that  ever  lived.  "  How  fortunate,"  he  added,  "  that 
the  garrison  of  Oczakow  is  runnmg  away.  I  march  at  once ; 
will  you  come  with  me  ? "  "  Can  you  doubt  it  ? "  I  cried. 
And  we  started. 

Instead  of  going  straight  to  the  fortress,  which  I  counted 
on  reaching  witlr  the  whole  cavalry  force  in  two  days,  we 
spent  three  by  the  water  side,  catching  and  eating  fish,  and 
we  went  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  victorious  fleet.  Still,  we  had, 
sooner  or  later,  to  arrive  at  Oczakow.  The  prince  sum- 
moned the  place  to  surrender.  No  one  had  left  it  as  he  had 
been  led  to  believe.  The  pacha  did  not  do  him  the  honour 
to  make  any  reply  to  his  summons. 

Nassau  brought  us  an  old  Dutch  colonel  of  engineers  to 
support  his  opinion,  which  was  to  assault  the  fort  at  once 
on  the  sea  side.  Instead  of  which,  he  was  ordered  to  fight 
a  fourth  naval  battle  and  burn  the  town.  The  morning 
before  this  was  done  Potemkin  said  to  me :  "  This  dog  of  a 
fortress  hampers  me."  I  answered:  "And  it  will  hamiDcr 
you  a  long  time  yet  if  you  don't  go  to  work  more  vigorously. 
Make  a  false  attack  on  one  side  and  jump  in  on  tlie  other 
by  the  intrenchment.  Get  in  pell-mell  with  all  you  can ; 
it  is  an  old  fortress  and  you  will  have  it."  "Do  you 
think,"  he  said,  "  that  this  is  like  your  Sabacz,  defended  by 
one  thousand  men  and  taken  by  twenty-five  thousand  ? "  I 
answered  that  he  ought  to  speak  with  respect,  and  imitate 
an  assault  made  by  the  emperor  in  person  with  two  battalions 


58  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

and  vigorously  carried  out  under  a  storm  of  fire  on  all  sides. 
Tlie  next  day  tlie  prince,  having  brilliantly  established  in 
person  a  battery  of  sixteen  cannon  on  open  ground  not  five 
hundred  feet  from  the  intrenchments,  and  thus  made  a 
diversion  for  Nassau's  fight,  remembered  our  conversation 
of  the  night  before,  and  while  the  bullets  were  raining 
round  us  he  said,  laughing,  to  Comte  Branicki :  "  Ask  him  if 
his  emperor  was  any  braver  at  Sabacz  than  I  am  here." 
It  is  most  true  that  this  sham  half-attack  was  hot,  and  no 
one  was  ever  more  nobly  and  gayly  valorous  than  Prince 
Potemkin.  I  loved  him  that  day  and  the  next  three,  when 
he  was  in  the  greatest  danger  during  the  siege.  I  told  him 
I  saw  plainly  it  was  necessary  to  fire  cannon  at  him  to  get 
him  out  of  his  ill-humour. 

After  that  everything  was  charming  for  a  few  days.  As 
I  supposed  they  were  going  to  employ  the  usual  means  of 
reducing  a  fort,  —  that  is  to  say,  a  strong  assault,  or  a  regular 
siege,  which  in  this  case  would  have  been  an  affair  of  a  week 
or  so,  —  I  took  part  in  all  the  skirmishes,  because  I  had  never 
yet  seen  the  fighting  of  the  Turks.  We  took  and  lost  the 
pacha's  gardens  several  times.  Once  my  horse  fell  with  me, 
either  from  fright  or  the  wind  of  a  ball;  and  my  faithful 
aide-de-camp,  Bettinger,  major  of  my  own  regiment,  shared 
in  the  fight  for  fear  he  should  miss  anything ;  though  he 
said  it  was  playing  to  the  gallery,  for  there  was  no  common- 
sense  in  it  all. 

On  one  occasion  I  made  a  useful  excursion ;  or  rather  it 
would  have  been  useful  if  the  self-sufficiency  of  my  prince 
had  not  prevented  him  from  following  the  advice.  I  made 
a  reconnoissance  close  up  to  the  fort  on  the  Liman  side  and 
the  intrenchment  on  the  side  of  the  Black  Sea,  discovering 
the  range  of  the  forty  cannon  by  drawing  their  fire  upon  me 
one  after  another.     I  then  proposed  the  action  which  will  be 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  57 

found  ill  my  letters,  but  was  neither  listened  to  nor  even 
heard. 

My  letters  from  Elisabeth-Gorod  will  sufficiently  show 
that,  whether  from  policy,  want  of  will,  or  incapacity,  the 
campaign  was  lost  before  it  was  begun.  What  follies,  whims, 
and  childishness,  what  anti-military  things  did  I  not  see 
during  the  period  of  five  months  that  I  remained  before  that 
paltry  place !  I  tried  to  ignore  them ;  but  I  suffered,  like  a 
musician  when  he  listens  to  instruments  that  are  not  in  tune. 
In  a  moment  of  great  impatience,  when  I  thought  the  prince 
suspected  me  of  wishing  to  take  the  command  of  the  army 
from  him  and  overthrow  him  at  his  Court,  I  made  him  some 
reproaches  that  touched  him.  I  had  had  the  moderation  not 
to  mention  to  either  of  the  Imperial  Majesties,  or  to  their 
ministers,  the  ridiculous  things  that  were  said  and  done  by 
the  prince,  and  I  never  complained  to  any  one,  though  per- 
haps I  had  better  have  done  so.  But  it  is  impossible  for  me 
to  do  harm  to  any  one,  certainly  not  to  a  man  who  had 
formerly  shown  me  such  friendsliip,  who  might  still  retain 
it  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  and  who  had,  moreover,  pro- 
cured me  so  many  kindnesses  from  the  empress.  The  blame 
that  truth  requires  me  not  to  conceal  here  will  do  no  harm 
to  him  when  these  words  are  read,  for  they  will  not  appear 
until  he  and  I  are  no  longer  in  this  world. 

I  wrote  him  a  sharp  letter,  and  ended  by  telling  him  that 
I  should  leave  the  next  day.  He  wrote  me  in  reply  the 
gentlest,  tenderest,  most  naive  letter  that  was  ever  written. 
Nothing  could  better  prove  that  if  he  be,  as  indeed  he  is, 
the  most  inconsequential  of  men,  he  is  also,  at  times,  the 
best  of  men ;  sometimes  our  quarrels  were  like  those  of  a 
lover  and  his  mistress. 

I  was  so  worn  out,  so  weary  of  the  scenes  of  that  theatre 
of  iniquity,  that  I  longed  to  get  away.     My  son  Cliarles 


5S  MEMOIR  or  THt:  tRmCE  DE  EIGNE. 

arrived  witli  despatches  from  his  Majesty  the  emperor,  com- 
manding me  to  join  him  in  Vienna,  and  I  quitted  forever, 
with  pleasure  and  with  regret,  the  armies  and  the  empire 
of  Eussia,  where  I  had  met  with  so  much  personal  kindness, 
but  where  my  zeal  for  the  glory  of  our  mvitual  arms  caused 
me  such  great  ill-humour ;  but  for  that,  I  should  have  been 
most  happy.  The  empress  was  too  clear-sighted  not  to 
perceive  my  displeasure.  I  had  not  written  her  a  single 
letter  throughout  the  whole  campaign.  If  I  had  only  once 
written  praises  of  Prince  Potemkin  and  of  his  operations, 
I  should  have  been  overwhelmed  with  estates  and  diamonds. 
Catherine  would  even  have  been  glad,  I  think,  had  I  de- 
ceived her.  It  would  have  been  more  comforting  to  her  to 
think  that  all  went  well.  [Here  follow  some  of  the  prince's 
letters  to  the  emperor  during  that  campaign  so-called.] 

To  H.  I.  Majesty  Joseph  II. 

Pbtersbukg,  October  14,  1787. 

I  thank  his  Majesty  for  the  proof  he  deigns  to  give  me 
of  his  confidence  by  employing  me  in  the  Paissian  armies ; 
and  I  take  the  liberty  of  saying  I  should  never  have  soHcited 
that  employment  had  I  known  of  the  two  favours  he  had 
graciously  done  me :  that  of  appointing  me  Feldzeugmeister, 
and  of  employing  me  in  his  army  of  Hungary  which  he 
commands  in  person  ;  not  foreseeing  the  vigorous  prompti- 
tude with  which  he  has  come  to  the  support  of  his  ally. 

But  if  I  have  the  happiness  of  being  useful  to  him,  it  will 
be  a  compensation  for  having  lost  the  honour  of  serving 
under  his  own  eye.  If  I  find  the  need  of  help  to  make  his 
Majesty's  intentions  successful  I  shall  appeal  to  his  ambas- 
sador, Comte  Cobenzl,  requesting  him  to  solicit  the  empress 
to  order  the  co-operative  action  which  is  so  wisely  indicated 
in  the  instructions  of  his  Majesty. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  ^RI^X'E  DE  LIGNE.  59 

Elisabeth-Gorod,  November  15, 1787. 

This  is  merely  to  inform  his  Majesty  of  my  arrival,  and 
to  say  to  him  that  this  army  not  bemg  initiated  into  the 
science  of  details  I  shall  often  have  difficulty  in  obtaining 
the  statements  I  need  for  his  information.  But  in  spite  of 
that,  I  shall  send  him  as  well  as  I  am  able  the  strength 
and  position  of  the  various  corps.  Prince  Potemkin,  to 
whom  I  have  given  an  extract  of  his  Majesty's  letter  (as 
I  did  to  the  empress  before  my  departure)  appears  to  in- 
tend to  execute  his  Majesty's  plan.  That  which  I  have 
debated  with  him  against  Choczim  seems  to  me  to  concern 
the  Eussians  more  than  the  Austrians,  but  I  have  promised 
to  present  his  project  and  to  send  a  small  Austrian  corps 
to  occupy  Krayova,  because  he  assures  me  that  the  slightest 
act  of  hostility  on  the  part  of  his  Majesty  the  emperor 
would  take  off,  morally  and  physically,  the  Grrand  Vizir's 
head,  the  latter  having  assured  the  Divan  that  his  Majesty 
would  not  advance. 

I  have  advised  Prince  Potemkin  to  take  advantage  of  the 
ice  to  surprise  Oczakow,  which  the  chilly  and  neglectful 
Turks  are  guarding  very  ill.  I  believe,  for  I  have  recon- 
noitred in  a  little  boat  very  close  to  the  fortress,  that  a 
hundred  men  could  scale  the  wall  and  open  the  gates  to 
a  column  which  should  cross  the  Bog. 

I  am  not  able  to  get  any  real  enlightenment  as  to  the 
destination  of  the  army  under  Mar^chal  Piomanzow ;  all 
I  know  is  that  he  is  now  on  his  estates  about  four  hundred 
versts  [300  miles]  from  his  troops. 

I  send  herewith  to  his  Majesty  a  note  written  by  Prince 
Potemkin,  in  which,  without  sufficiently  explaining  him- 
self as  to  £he  siege  of  Oczakow  or  the  length  of  time  he 
expects  the  siege  to  last,  he  pledges  himself  to  cross  the 
Bog  as  soon  as  the  season  allows,  and  attack  whatever  Turks 


60  Memoir  of  the  prince  de  eigne. 

he  finds  between  that  river  and  the  Dniester.  He  thinks 
the  Mussuhnan  army  will  assemble  near  Godzabey,  that 
Inkermann  will  then  fall  of  itself,  after  which  he  can  march 
on.  This  he  explained  to  me  in  giving  me  the  Note;  and 
he  is  anxious  to  justify  himself  to  his  Majesty  for  being 
forced  to  keep  the  defensive  by  his  total  lack  of  provisions 
and  his  distance  from  his  base  of  supplies,  —  not  having,  he 
says,  expected  this  sudden  declaration  of  war. 

To   Comte  Zouis-Philippe  de  Segur. 

Elisabeth-Gorod,  December  1,  1787. 

Here  I  am,  my  dear  S^gur,  in  the  Russian  uniform  of  a 
general-in-chief  which  gives  me  great  pleasure,  a  Turkish 
sabre  at  my  side,  and,  while  awaiting  service  as  general  or 
volunteer,  with  an  Austrian  pen  in  my  hand,  —  a  sort  of 
diplomatic  jockey  to  that  best  of  ambassadors,  Cobenzl, 
who  thinks  night  and  day  of  the  glory  of  the  two  empires. 
I  am  very  happy  to  be  able  to  serve  them  both  in  different 
ways :  consilio  manuquc.  Meanwhile  behold  me  in  a  little 
chamber  one  foot  shorter  than  myself,  where  I  might  from 
my  bed  open  the  door  if  it  could  be  shut,  make  the  fire 
if  I  had  any  wood  for  the  stove,  and  close  the  window  if 
it  did  not  have  paper  instead  of  glass,  and  no  sashes. 

Separated  from  the  whole  world,  without  letters  to  write 
or  receive,  I  drive  away  the  memory  of  all  I  have  left  three 
thousand  miles  away  from  me  and  make  myself  romances 
of  success  of  another  kind.  I  say  to  myself  sometimes  : 
"  The  queen's  balls  begin  perhaps  to-day,"  —  yes,  but  to-mor- 
row we  will  drive  those  Tartars  across  the  Bog,  which  is 
now  frozen  over.  Once  it  was  called  the  Hypanis.  What 
a  charming  name  for  history  !  Even  the  Ingul,  which  flows 
near  tliis  place,  is  more  piquant  than  the  Seine. 

Enjoy  the  presence  of  the  sun,  the  ineffable  happiness  of 


MEMOIR  OF  TIIE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  61 

admiring  Catherine  the  Great  and  of  seeing  her  daily.  I 
could  never  have  left  her  but  for  her  sake.  I  go  to  fight  her 
enemies,  but  I  do  not  leave  her  in  the  midst  of  mine.  In  a 
few  days  I  will  continue  this  letter :  but  as  the  days  are  very 
long  here  that  may  mean  several  montlis. 

To  H.  I.  M.  Joseph  11. 

Elisabeth-Gorod,  January  15,  1788. 

This  is  to  render  his  Majesty  an  account  of  my  fears  as  to 
the  great  loss  of  time,  and  also  as  to  the  subject  of  my  letter 
to  Comte  Cobenzl,  and  the  remedies  that  ought  to  be  applied. 
I  take  the  liberty  of  asking  whether  it  is  true  that  the  Court 
of  Petersburg  has  sent  his  Majesty  an  account  of  its  forces 
and  a  plan  of  campaign. 

I  have  to  say  that  there  is  no  Turkish  army  anywhere,  not 
so  much  as  the  smallest  corps  ;  tliere  are  no  troops  except 
the  garrisons  of  Oczakow,  Bender,  and  Choczim,  and  the  num- 
ber of  those  is  exaggerated.  I  had  the  honour  of  informing 
his  Majesty  that  five  Turks  had  been  captured ;  six  others 
have  been  killed  by  a  party  of  Cossacks,  but  they  had  to  ride 
one  hundred  versts  the  other  side  of  the  river  to  do  it.  I  beg 
also  to  inform  his  Majesty  that  I  have  received  a  plan  of 
campaign,  rather  less  vague  than  the  last,  which  promises  the 
capture  of  Oczakow  in  the  month  of  June,  after  three  weeks' 
siege,  covered  by  Mar^chal  Eomanzow,  who  will  cross  the 
Dniester  by  way  of  Bender ;  and  if  Prince  Potemkin  suffers 
severely  by  the  siege  and  assault,  he  will  advance  to  the 
Danube  and  be  covered  in  turn  by  the  prince. 

The  latter  has  informed  me  that  whenever  he  approaches 
sufficiently  near  to  the  army  of  his  Imperial  Majesty  he  in- 
tends to  send  him  two  regiments  of  Cossacks,  for  he  noticed 
in  the  Crimea  how  much  he  admired  those  troops. 

I  communicate  herewith  to  his  Majesty  the  news  from 
Ver,  7  Mem.  6 


62  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

Constantinople,  which  the  prince  sends  me,  together  with  the 
reports  of  the  spies.  His  arrangements  are  now  good  for  sup- 
plies and  hospitals.  I  add  an  account  of  the  cost  of  forage, 
which  I  have  advised  should  be  put  under  two  heads  instead 
of  three. 

I  have  only  to  congratulate  myself  on  the  friendship  of 
the  prince,  which  still  continues,  though  I  sometimes  try  it 
severely  by  my  obstinate  desire  to  begin  the  campaign,  to 
which  I  urge  him  vigorously  for  the  sake  of  his  own  fame, 
in  which  I  am  so  much  interested  that  I  shall  be  very  sorry 
if  he  spends  more  consecutive  months  in  Elisabeth-Gorod 
doing  nothing,  for  it  will  injure  him  much  in  the  eyes  of 
Europe. 

To  the  Same. 
Still  at  Elisabeth-Gorod,  February  10, 1788. 

Sire,  —  I  am  going  to  risk  many  things.  But  zelus  domus 
tuce  comedit  me.  Your  Imperial  Majesty  will  not  expect  to 
receive  counsel  from  me,  and  I  should  not  venture  to  send  it 
if  I  were  not  sure  of  being  long  without  seeing  you  )  I  hope, 
however,  it  will  have  been  followed  and  forgotten  between 
now  and  then. 

Europe  is  mviddhng  things  in  such  a  way  that  there  is  no 
time  to  be  lost  in  taking  advantage  of  some  circumstances 
and  preventing  others.  The  King  of  Prussia  is  irritated  be- 
cause the  empress  sent  him  word  he  had  been  too  short  a 
time  upon  his  throne  to  pronounce  upon  the  interests  of 
others,  and  that  he  ought  not  to  think,  like  the  republic  of 
Holland,  of  settling  the  affairs  of  three  empires,  and  handling 
them  like  Poland. 

Your  Imperial  Majesty  could  prevent  Poland  from  deliver- 
ing herself  up  to  him  if  you  would  deign  to  write  me  an  osten- 
sible letter,  promising  that  two  of  the  co-partitioning  powers 


MEiMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  63 

would  arm  against  the  third  if  the  king  attempted  to  obtain 
the  very  smallest  starostic.  Under  pretext  of  using  them 
against  the  Turks,  I  have  persuaded  Prince  Potemkin  to  give 
me  forty  thousand  muskets  for  the  Poles  if  they  wish  to 
make  a  confederacy  supported  by  the  two  imperial  Courts. 
Several  Polish  grand  seigneurs  with  whom  I  have  communi- 
cated on  this  subject  are  only  waiting  for  this  support  to 
choke  the  Prussian  party.  All  I  ask  of  them  is  to  he  Poles. 
Prince  Tchervertinski,  who  is  as  ardent  as  he  is  enlight- 
ened, agreed  with  me  yesterday  that  for  his  compatriots  to 
be  otherwise  would  be  the  ruin  and  the  end  of  their  nation. 
I  tell  them  always  :  "  Do  not  look  to  Vienna,  Petersburg, 
Berlin;  if  you  want  to  get  free  from  the  Eussian  yoke  do 
not  put  yourselves  under  one  more  dangerous." 

I  have  pledged  myself  that  your  Imperial  Majesty  will 
induce  the  empress  to  lessen  the  abuses  of  authority  which 
her  generals  and  ministers  commit,  often  unjustly,  on  the 
Poles.  This  would  be  good  policy,  and  good  morals  too. 
Before  I  meddled  in  politics  I  should  have  put  morality 
before  policy;  but  I  see  now  the  latter  wins. 

I  am  here  exactly  in  the  position  of  a  child's  nurse.  But 
my  nursling  is  large,  strong,  and  perverse.  Yesterday  he 
said  to  me :  "  Do  you  think  you  have  come  here  to  lead  me 
by  the  nose  ? "  "  Do  you  think,"  I  answered,  "  that  I  should 
have  come  if  I  did  not  think  so  ?  Lazy  and  without  expe- 
rience, what  could  be  better  for  you,  dear  prince  ?  Why  not 
let  yourself  go  to  a  lover  of  your  fame  and  the  glory  of  the 
two  empires  ?  You  lack  so  little  of  being  perfect ;  but  what 
can  your  genius  do  unless  aided  by  friendship  and  confi- 
dence ? "  The  prince  said:  "  Make  your  emperor  cross  the 
Save  and  I  will  cross  the  Bog."  "How  can  you,"  I  said, 
"  stand  on  ceremony,  as  if  you  were  entering  the  door  of  a 
salon  ?     But  my  emperor  will  make  way  for  you  ;  he  has  a 


64  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

Turkish  army  in  front  of  him,  and  you  have  none."  "Do 
you  think,"  he  remarked,  "  that  he  would  give  us  crosses  of 
Maria  Theresa  and  receive  our  Saint-George  for  those  who 
distinguish  themselves  in  both  armies  ? "  I  saw  he  was 
coming  to  that.  He  has  a  mania  for  Orders.  He  has  only 
about  a  dozen.  I  assured  him  that  Oczakow  would  be  worth 
our  grandest  cross,  and  Belgrade,  if  he  made  it  easier  to  your 
Majesty  to  capture  it,  would  win  him  Saint-Etienne.  I  beg 
your  Majesty  to  confirm  this  hope ;  and  if  our  Eoman  Cath- 
olicity could  set  itself  aside  in  his  favour  as  to  the  Golden 
Fleece,  he  would  be  wholly  ours. 

Your  Majesty  alarms  me  by  what  you  deign  to  write 
me  on  the  subject  of  France  and  Flanders.  Both  countries 
must  have  greatly  changed  during  the  two  years  that  I 
have  lost  sight  of  them  if  an  army  of  fifty  thousand  men 
assembled  near  Paris,  and  a  "  Vive  le  Eoi ! "  gayly  shouted 
in  France,  and  firmness  shown  in  Flanders,  cannot  restore 
and  preserve  order.  Take  off  the  head  of  a  monk,  a  burgo- 
master, a  brewer,  and  one  of  the  conscript  fathers,  and  you 
will  save  the  other  heads  from  the  poison  breath  of  England 
and  Prussia,  and  the  scaffold. 

If  your  Imperial  Majesty  maintains  the  three  bodies 
which  compose  the  State  Assemblies,  and  the  essential 
principles  of  the  Constitution,  none  but  intriguers  and  false 
patriots  who  for  selfish  ends  desire  to  make  trouble  will 
remain.  It  was  this  assurance  that  I  begged  your  Majesty, 
as  you  wiU  remember,  when  we  were  at  Barczisarai  to  allow 
me  to  take  to  the  Belgian  Assembly,  and  I  believe  that  I 
could  then,  if  allowed  to  abandon  a  few  innovations  for  the 
benefit  of  the  country,  have  pacified  everything  in  ten  days. 

I  beg  your  Majesty  to  avert  from  my  head  the  indigna- 
tion of  the  Council  of  war  and  the  Chancellerie ;  however 
willing  I  may  be  to  do  so  I  have  notliing  to  write  tliem. 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE.  65 

for  we  are  doing  nothing.  Moreover,  the  intimate  and 
very  true  friend  of  your  Majesty  does  not  wish  that  what 
she  writes  to  me  should  reach  your  ministers  :  for  instance, 
her  remark  (which  I  repeated  to  your  Majesty)  that  if 
I  would  induce  you  to  send  the  Prince  of  Coburg  into 
Moldavia  she  would  give  her  imperial  word  that  we  should 
have  Choczim  and  the  Eaya  at  the  peace  —  such  peace  as 
they  can  make ! 

She  is  impatient,  and  wishes  the  war  could  be  hurried, 
because  she  is  not  sure  but  what  the  King  of  Prussia  is 
working  on  the  hot  and  crooked  brain  of  the  King  of 
Sweden.  One  thing  is  certain;  if  something  is  not  done 
to  stop  those  impertinent  threats  and  representations  of 
the  French  nation  and  the  impotent  projects  of  the  Flemish 
malcontents  the  whole  of  our  part  of  the  world  will  shortly 
be  in  flames. 

Prince  Potemkin  gives  me  news  brought  back  by  his 
emissaries  at  Scutari,  but  I  never  guarantee  his  facts,  be- 
cause that  great  child  is  capable  of  being  very  wily.  The 
other  day  I  reproached  him  for  our  inaction,  and  soon  after 
a  courier  arrived  with  news  of  a  battle  won  in  the  Caucasus. 
"  Behold  ! "  he  said  to  me,  "  you  say  I  do  nothing.  I  have 
just  killed  ten  thousand  Circassians,  Abyssinians,  Immorets, 
and  Georgians ;  and  I  had  already  killed  five  thousand  Turks 
at  Kinbourn."  "  I  am  charmed,"  "  I  said,  "  to  find  we  have 
so  much  glory  without  ever  suspecting  it."  I  have  in- 
formed him  of  the  wretched  condition  of  his  cartridges. 
If  we  had  provisions  we  should  march ;  if  we  had  pontoons 
we  should  cross  the  rivers ;  if  we  had  bullets  and  balls  we 
should  lay  siege ;  nothing  has  been  forgotten  but  those 
items ;  the  prince  has  ordered  them  to  be  sent  with  post- 
horses  ;  this  style  of  transportation  and  the  purchase  of 
munitions  are  costing  three  millions  of  roubles. 


66  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE   EIGNE. 

I  place  at  the  feet  of  your  Majesty  the  zeal  and  personal 
attachment  of,  etc. 

P.  S.  In  spite  of  all  the  weaknesses  of  my  commander- 
in-chief  he  has  one  rare  merit  in  this  country,  —  sincere 
attachment  to  the  house  of  Austria. 

To  the  Comtc  de  Scgur. 

February  15,  1788. 

No  news;  no  appearance  of  the  promised  Tartars.  But 
the  Prince  of  Nassau  has  arrived  from  Paris.  His  tenacity 
in  negotiation  as  in  cannon  may  bring  us  something ;  his 
reputation,  consideration,  and  logic,  though  he  never  had 
the  time  to  study,  may  serve  our  wishes  at  this  important 
crisis.  Meantime,  did  I  not  see  him  two  days  ago,  sabre  in 
hand,  saving  my  life  ?  He  is  never  two  days  together  like 
other  people.  This  is  how  it  happened.  I  am  getting  over 
an  attack  of  fever  (for  luckily  there  are  no  doctors  here), 
and  having  heard  of  the  sun  I  was  awaiting  its  arrival  to  be 
cured.  Nassau  guided  me  out  of  this  melancholy  fort.  My 
servants  carried  me,  laid  me  down  on  the  grass,  and  went 
away ;  while  I  went  to  sleep  in  the  sun.  A  snake  which 
the  first  warm  rays  brought  back  to  life,  as  they  did  me, 
coiled  itself  about  me.  I  heard  a  noise.  It  was  Nassau 
striking  something  as  hard  as  he  could,  cutting  it  into 
twenty  little  bits,  which  all  wriggled  though  separated 
from   each    other. 

They  brought  in  to-day  a  few  Turkish  prisoners,  as  stupid 
as  the  Turks  of  an  Opera  ball.  In  fact  I  cannot  get  it  into 
my  head  that  they  are  not  masks,  and  that  we  are  really  at 
war  with  them.  The  prince  has  had  a  unique  idea,  that  of 
forming  a  regiment  of  Jews,  which  he  calls  his  Israelowsky. 
We  already  have  a  squadron  which  is  all  my  joy,  for  their 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE.  67 

beards,  which  fall  to  their  knees  because  their  stirrups  are 
so  short,  and  their  terror  at  being  on  horseback,  make  them 
look  like  monkeys.  You  can  read  their  uneasiness  in  their 
eyes,  and  the  long  lances  which  they  hold  in  the  most 
comical  manner  make  you  think  that  they  want  to  mimic 
the  Cossacks. 

Jews  have  never  been  in  vogue  since  God  abandoned  them. 
That  is  why  Christians  have  nothing  to  do  with  them ;  phi- 
losophers, on  the  other  hand,  have  never  given  them  a  thought, 
apparently  because  their  faces  are  not  pleasing  to  them. 
The  world  is  supposed  to  have  a  horror  of  the  Jews  on 
account  of  their  reHgion ;  it  is  really  on  account  of  their 
appearance.  If  Christians  have  neither  the  cleverness  nor 
the  kindness  to  drag  them  out  of  the  state  they  are  in  and 
make  something  of  them,  I  wish  for  the  sake  of  their  happi- 
ness (for  they  make  me  laugh  and  pity  them  every  day)  that 
some  one  with  influence  would  persuade  the  Grand  Turk 
to  give  them  back  the  kingdom  of  Judea,  where  they  would 
probably  behave  better  than  they  once  did.  The  degree  of 
degradation  in  which  the  European  governments  leave  the 
Jews,  their  poverty,  their  filth,  their  bad  food,  the  noxious 
air  of  their  synagogues  and  their  streets  perpetuate  their 
faces  and  figures,  so  that  one  may  truly  say :  Jacob  genuit 
Isaac  like  unto  himself.  They  certainly  do  have  stigmatized 
faces,  and,  being  full  of  faith  in  the  prophecies,  I  am  con- 
vinced they  deserve  them ;  but  they  might  look  less  so  if, 
besides  being  condemned  of  God,  they  were  not  chastised 
by  men.  That  is  what  makes  them  cheats,  cowards,  liars, 
and  base.  Those  four  qualities  stamped  on  their  faces  do 
not  beautify  them.  But  they  are  not  thieves,  or  assassins, 
or  wicked,  nor  are  they  ever  seen  in  places  of  debauchery. 
Give  them  a  station  or  an  asylum,  and  they  will  cease  to  be 
what  they  are.     Why  not  settle  with  the  pope  (if  he  still 


68  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

exists)  and  Holy  Scripture,  and  see  liow  far  one  might  go 
with  regard  to  the  Jews  without  falsifying  the  Prophets  ?  — 
which  is,  however,  impossible. 

Yesterday  I  won  six  hundred  ducats  at  dames  [draughts], 
there  being  no  other  sort  of  dames  here  to  occupy  me.  Adieu. 
I  can  say,  as  the  husband  to  his  wife,  I  have  no  one,  and 
no  one  has  me ;  I  hope  that  is  true  of  you.  Wlien  I  hear 
something  interesting  I  will  —  no,  I  will  not  write  it  to  you, 
because  I  remember  I  am  on  public  business  and  ought  to 
be  discreet.  So  far  our  secret  has  been  well  kept.  Good- 
night. 

To  H.  I.  M.  Joseph  11. 

April  6,  1788. 

SiKE,  —  It  really  seems  as  if  we  were  about  to  bestir  our- 
selves a  little ;  the  grass  which  is  beginning  to  appear  has 
induced  a  corps  to  cross  the  Bog  (which  it  ought  to  have 
done  long  ago)  in  order  to  cut  off  the  communication  be- 
tween Oczakow,  Bender,  and  Godzabey,  whence  the  former 
obtains  its  reinforcements.  I  am  constantly  told  that  the 
campaign  will  be  better  than  I  thought,  and  I  believe  it. 

Mar^chal  Eomanzow  wrote  to  Prince  Ptepnin  asking  to  be 
told  privately  what  he  was  to  do,  and  what  Prince  Potemkin's 
intentions  were.  Eepnin  could  not  tell  him.  The  slowness 
in  making  preparations  has  caused  the  Prince  of  Nassau  to 
lose  six  good  weeks,  and  it  will  be  three  more  before  he  gets 
what  he  needs  in  order  to  attack  Oczakow.  And  that  delay, 
I  think,  is  what  they  want  to  get  time  to  cross  the  Bog  and 
make  believe  it  is  that  move  which  compels  the  surrender  of 
the  fortress. 

Prince  Potemkin  complains  of  the  ministry  at  Petersburg ; 
he  says  they  do  not  send  him  proper  accounts  of  what  they 
are  doing  in  this  or  that  affair,  and  also  that  they  deceive 
the  empress.      There  is,  in  fact,  so  strong  a  cabal  against 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  69 

him  that  I  should  not  be  surprised,  from  certain  things  he 
tells  me  when  much  discontented,  if  he  did  not  finish  this 
campaign. 

I  think  I  have  contributed  a  little  to  stir  up  the  King  of 
Poland,  without  in  any  way  committing  your  Majesty's  name. 
The  king  has  asked  for  the  sanction  and  advice  of  Eussia  in 
forming  a  Confederation.  He  writes  me  that  they  have  not 
answered  him  from  Petersburg.  They  are  losing  time  that 
would  be  precious  in  preventing  a  most  important  scheme. 
The  pretext  of  defending  Poland  from  invasion  by  imaginary 
Tartars,  of  whom  there  is  so  much  talk  and  no  appearance, 
will  suffice  to  arm  that  country. 

I  learn  with  much  feeling  that  your  Imperial  Majesty  was 
pleased  with  the  conduct  of  my  regiment  at  Brussels.  I  ven- 
ture to  take  the  liberty  of  assuring  you  that  if  it  had  been 
there  on  the  1st  of  May  of  last  year  its  fidelity  and  its  zeal 
for  the  sovereign  would  have  prevailed  over  the  efforts  of 
the  canaille,  who  profited  by  that  fine  word  "prudence," 
ridiculously  used  in  place  of  the  means  afforded  by  the  Ligne 
regiment,  which  does  not  understand  "  affairs." 

I  am  greatly  in  hopes  that  within  three  weeks  we  shall 
quit  this  Elisabeth  and  cross  the  Bog.  The  Prince  of 
Nassau  left  us  to-day  to  command  the  flotilla  off  Kherson. 
This,  at  least,  I  have  accomplished.  He  knows  very  well 
that  he  can  burn  the  Turkish  fleet  (which  has  now  been 
given  time  to  collect  here),  but  not  fight  it.  He  has  five 
floating  batteries,  eight  galleys,  fifteen  gun-boats,  and  a 
quantity  of  other  vessels  well  supphed  with  cannon. 
Therefore  he  can  silence  the  guns  of  the  fortress,  avoid  the 
fire  of  Hassan  Pacha's  redoubt,  and  rake  the  great  intrench- 
ment  constructed  by  the  French.  He  expects  to  make  a 
breach  large  enough  for  General  Suvaroff,  protected  by  his 
guns,  to  open  the  attack  on  that  side.     Meantime  they  are 


70  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

furnishing  him  with  what  he  wants,  and  I  hope  that  in  a 
month  he  can  at  last  begin  the  bombardment  with  a 
cannonading  of  red  balls. 

The  jealousy  felt  here  at  seeing  a  volunteer  —  German, 
French,  or  Spanish,  it  matters  not  —  in  charge  of  all  this 
is  extreme,  and  will  increase  when  it  becomes  known  that 
Potemkin  has  persuaded  the  empress  to  take  Paul  Jones  into 
the  service  of  Eussia  as  major-general  and  vice-admiral. 
He  will  arrive  here  next  week ;  an  excellent  acquisition,  so 
they  say.     We  shall  see ;  but  I  think  him  only  a  corsair. 

Immediately  after  the  taking  of  Oczakow  I  intend  to 
avail  myself  of  your  permission  to  move  to  the  army  of 
General  Romanzow,  which  is  then  to  march  to  the  Danube, 
and  there  execute,  as  I  hope,  all  that  I  have  proposed  on 
the  part  of  your  Imperial  Majesty  to  unite  the  armies  and 
give  a  final  defeat  to  the  Ottomans.  Prince  Potemkin  will, 
apparently,  content  himself  with  covering  the  march  of 
the  convoys  and  the  province  of  Ekaterinoslav. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  not  to  place  at  the  feet  of  your 
Majesty  my  gratitude  and  my  deep  emotion  at  what  you 
deign  to  tell  me  of  your  satisfaction  with  the  zeal  of  my 
good  Charles.  In  spite  of  your  omnipotence  you  could 
not  possibly  have  granted  me  a  greater  benefit  than  that 
of  those  three  precious  lines.  I  venture  to  assure  you 
that  he  is  worth  more  than  I ;  and  it  will  be  a  great  con- 
solation to  leave  behind  me  a  subject  who  may,  perhaps, 
be  so  fortunate  as  to  be  of   service  to  his  Master. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  etc. 


IV. 

1788-1789. 
THE  TURKISH   WAR  CONTINUED. 

To  the  Coriite  Be  Segur. 

Elisabeth-Gorod,  May  8, 1788. 

Ah!  my  friend,  let  me  weep  a  moment,  while  you  read 

tills:  — 

Klenack,  April  25, 1788. 

We  have  taken  Sabacz.  Our  loss  has  not  been  consider- 
able. General  Rouvroy,  whose  worth  you  know,  has  a  slight 
wound  in  the  breast  which  prevents  his  wearing  clothes  and 
going  out.  Prince  Poniatowski  was  shot  in  the  thigh;  the 
bone  was  not  touched,  though  the  wound  is  of  consequence. 

But  I  must,  my  dear  prince,  tell  you  of  something  else 
which  will  give  you  the  more  pleasure  because  you  will 
recognize  your  own  blood  in  it.  It  is  that  your  son  Charles 
has,  in  a  great  degree,  contributed  to  the  success  of  our  en- 
terprise by  the  infinite  pains  he  took  to  trace  out  the  line  of 
intrenchments  for  the  placing  of  the  batteries.  He  was  also 
the  first  to  climb  the  parapet  and  show  the  way  to  others.  I 
have  therefore  promoted  him  lieutenant-colonel  and  conferred 
upon  him  the  Order  of  Maria  Theresa.  I  feel  a  true  pleasure 
in  giving  you  this  news,  from  the  certainty  I  have  of  the 
satisfaction  it  will  be  to  you,  knowing  as  I  do  your  tenderness 
for  your  son,  and  your  patriotism. 

I  leave  to-morrow  for  Semlin,  etc. 

Joseph. 

What  modesty !  the  emperor  never  mentions  himself. 
He  was  in  the  thickest  of  the  lire.  And  what  grace  and 
kindness   in  the  account  he  sends  me !     The   beginning  of 


72  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

the  letter  was  only  instructions,  reflections,  etc.,  and  then 
this,  which  made  me  burst  into  tears. 

The  courier  who  brought  it  saw  the  emperor  facing  with 
good  grace  the  musketry  fire  in  the  streets  of  Sabacz ;  and 
Marechal  de  Lacy  himself  tearing  down  a  palisade  to  place 
a  cannon  to  bear  upon  a  tower  from  which  continual  fire 
was  made  upon  my  Charles,  and  so  protect  his  assault. 
The  marshal  would  have  done  the  same  for  any  other,  I 
am  sure,  but  it  had  the  air  of  personal  and  paternal  kind- 
ness to  Charles. 

The  marshal  was  a  little  tired,  and  the  emperor  fetched 
him  a  barrel  and  made  him  sit  down,  while  he  and  the 
generals  stood  around  him  and  did  him  a   sort  of  homage. " 

Here  is  a  letter  from  Charles  himself :  — 

"  We  have  Sabacz.  I  have  the  Cross.  You  will  feel,  papa, 
that  I  thought  of  you  as  I  went  up  first  to  the  assault." 

Was  ever  anything  more  touching  than  that  ?  Why  was 
I  not  near  him  to  grasp  his  hand !  I  see  that  I  have  his 
esteem  in  those  words,  "I  thought  of  you."  Would  that 
I  had  better  deserved  them ! 

I  am  too  overcome  to  write  more.  I  embrace  you,  dear 
count. 

To  H.  I.  M.  Joseph  11. 

May  13,  1788. 
Expressions  fail  me ;  all  that  I  can  say  to  your  Imperial 
Majesty  is  that  you  dispose  henceforth  of  our  entire  ex- 
istence. Our  blood,  our  fortune,  our  life  are  ours  no  longer 
—  happy  if  I  could  buy  with  mine  the  same  success  be- 
neath your  eyes  when  your  Majesty  will  have  the  goodness 
to  recall  me  from  here,  where  matters,  being  now  in  train, 
can  go  by  themselves.  My  happiness  in  what  your  Majesty 
has  deigned  to  say  and  do  for  Cliarles  is  lessened  by  regret 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  73 

that  I  could  not  be  with  him  upon  that  parapet,  where  the 
name,  the  activity,  and  the  presence  of  your  Majesty  did 
more  than  even  the  cannon.  I  envy  Charles  and  all  others 
of  that  splendid  expedition. 

Her  Majesty  the  empress  wrote  yesterday  for  the  first 
time  on  the  subject  of  delays.  Why  did  she  not  do  so 
earlier  ?  And  she  does  it  now  only  at  the  instance  of  our 
ambassador,  to  whom  I  made  remonstrance  openly  through 
the  Eussian  couriers,  because  I  hoped  to  have  my  letter  read 
—  for  it  is  all  the  same  to  me  now  to  quarrel,  or  be  on  good 
terms  as  I  please.  It  is  not  becoming  in  me  to  give  advice 
to  your  Majesty,  but  you  will  pardon  my  excess  of  zeal. 
There  is  such  jealousy,  malice,  and  ignorance,  so  little  eager- 
ness to  do,  so  many  pretexts  for  not  doing  great  things  on 
the  offensive  line,  that,  in  my  opinion,  in  order  not  to  have 
the  whole  Ottoman  force  flung  upon  our  troops,  there  is 
nothing  to  be  done  but  to  make  a  good  peace  as  soon  as  your 
Imperial  Majesty,  after  taking  such  places  as  you  want,  can 
get  the  rest  by  treaty. 

Kussia  feels  the  weakness  of  her  colossus  [Potemkin]. 
She  will  be  content  if  no  demand  is  made  upon  her  for  the 
Crimea,  if  an  arrangement  can  be  made  about  the  Caucasus, 
if  she  obtains  Oczakow  and  is  able  to  give  the  name  of  Ocza- 
kowski  and  the  grand  cordon  of  Saint-George  to  Prince 
Potemkin.  She  wants  nothing  more ;  neither  Moldavia  nor 
WaUachia ;  and  if  she  could  get  Bender  and  Choczim  rased, 
so  that  the  navigation  of  the  Dniester  shall  be  free  to  her, 
she  will  have  everything  she  desires.  All  her  fine  projects 
of  driving  the  Turks  out  of  Europe  and  turning  Constan- 
tinople into  a  republic  have  vanished. 

Apropos  of  Orders,  I  do  not  know  what  was  in  the  head 
of  Prince  Potemkin  the  other  day,  but  on  his  table  where  he 
was  making  designs  with  diamonds,  I  saw  a  splendid  Golden 


74  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  EIGNE. 

Fleece,  worth  a  hundred  thousand  roubles.  Was  that  to  tell 
me  it  should  be  mine  if  I  would  write  to  the  empress  and 
say  that  all  was  going  well  ?  Or  did  he  mean  me  to  mider- 
stand  that  he  sliould  give  it  to  himself  if  your  Majesty 
bestowed  that  Order  upon  him  ?  The  empress,  astonished 
at  receiving  no  letters  from  me,  sees  plainly  enough  that  I 
am  too  grateful  for  her  past  kindnesses,  which  I  owed  in  the 
first  instance  to  Prince  Potemkin,  to  complain  to  her  of  him, 
and  also  that  I  am  too  truthful  to  write  her  that  he  could 
not  do  more  than  he  is  doing.  So  I  think  no  longer  of  my 
claims  on  Eussia  through  the  marriage  of  Charles  with 
a  Massalska,  —  claims  for  which  I  made  my  first  journey  to 
Petersburg.  I  thmk  I  shall  have  no  difficulty  now  in  avoid- 
ing gifts  of  diamonds  and  peasantry  as  I  had  last  year. 

To  the  Same. 

May  21, 1788. 
The  English  and  the  Prussians  have  an  envoy  with  the 
Turks  to  make  them  do  something  in  the  interests  of  those 
countries.  I  pity  him  with  all  my  heart,  for  his  position  is 
as  thankless  as  mine.  The  conduct  of  the  Turks  is  quite  as 
extraordinary  as  that  of  the  Eussians.  There  is  no  appear- 
ance of  their  troops ;  not  the  smallest  little  corps  d'armee 
between  the  Bog  and  the  Dniester;  our  Cossacks  meet  no 
one,  though  they  ride  about  everywhere,  especially  of  late. 
The  Greeks  are  desirous  of  arming  and  entering  the  service 
if  any  opportunity  is  given  them.  Neglected  by  the  empress, 
forgotten  by  Potemkin  (who  has  kept  a  deputation  of  two 
hundred  waiting  about  here  for  over  two  months),  they 
have  now  come  to  me  to  say  that  your  Imperial  Majesty 
may  count  upon  them.  I  did  not  commit  myself,  for  I  know 
there  is  no  trust  to  be  placed  in  them.  As  I  would  rather 
lose  my  money  than  the  credit  of  my  influence,  I  gave  five 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  75 

hundred  ducats  to  a  very  intelligent  young  man  named 
Arthur  Gorgi  to  enable  him  to  take  to  your  Majesty  his  little 
colony,  which  desires  to  establish  itself  in  the  Banat  [province 
of  Hungary]. 

To  the  Same. 

In  Camp  before  Oczakow,  July  19,  1788. 

Sire,  —  I  fully  expected  that  our  false  attack  by  way  of 
diversion,  which  made  us  see  how  easy  the  intrenchments 
were  to  carry,  would  be  the  prelude  to  a  real  attack  on  the 
morrow.  It  was  plain  that  the  battalion  of  chasseurs,  with 
which  I  was,  could  easily  get  a  footing  there,  and  that  the 
infantry,  in  the  confusion  that  reigned  in  the  town,  might 
have  entered  by  way  of  the  enemy's  camp.  Every  one  in  the 
tents  within  the  line  of  intrenchments  had  fled.  I  saw 
this  myself. 

But  instead  of  this  prompt  action,  we  are  to  wait  for  the 
heavy  artillery  (which  the  empress  detained  under  the  idea 
of  difficulties  with  the  Court  of  Berlin),  in  order  to  lay  a 
regular  siege,  although  there  are  no  engineer  officers  here 
to  conduct  it.  Owmg  to  sickness,  which  prevails  and  in- 
creases, we  have  only  about  10,000  effective  infantry,  who 
are  melting  away  under  the  filthiness  of  this  camp,  and 
25,000  Cossacks  and  light-horse,  with  30,000  men  for  the 
120  siege  guns  now  on  their  way,  and  the  supply  trains. 
Thus  it  will  be  two  or  three  weeks  yet  before  the  siege 
begins. 

I  have  had  the  honour  to  send  your  Majesty  an  exact 
account  of  the  strength  of  this  army,  the  horses  and  men  of 
which  are  in  fine  condition !  200  per  battalion  on  the  sick- 
list  ;  but  that  will  not  last  long ;  if  they  continue  to  be  as 
ill-treated  as  they  are  now  they  will  all  be  dead  soon.  A  few 
are  dragged  along  in  those  English  carriages  your  Majesty 


7G  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE. 

has  seen,  —  without  surgeons  or  medicaments  ;  when  they  get 
worse  they  are  sent  back  to  Wagenburg ;  if  dangerously  ill 
to  Elisabeth,  and  die  on  the  way. 

As  for  provisions,  the  troops  carry  them  with  them ;  they 
are  called  portative.  The  cavalry  horses,  also  those  for  the 
artillery,  are  good ;  the  oxen,  which  are  used  for  food  and 
draught  both,  are  very  good.  There  are  provisions  enough, 
thanks  to  biscuit  and  fast-days,  to  last  the  campaign ;  also 
there  is  flour  enough  for  each  soldier  to  now  and  then  make 
his  own  bread. 

As  for  the  soldier  himself,  he  is  always  a  model  of  punctu- 
ality, cleanliness,  patience,  obedience,  good-will,  and  good 
service,  though  no  one  takes  care  of  him.  I  have  never  yet 
seen  a  drunken  soldier,  or  a  quarrelsome,  argumentative,  or 
negligent  one.  No  one  ever  drills  either  the  infantry  or  the 
light-horse.  There  is  no  forming  in  line ;  no  standing 
motionless ;  but  they  keep  their  distances  pretty  well.  They 
march  by  fours  in  these  vast  plains ;  and  the  columns  find 
means  to  intersect  one  another  to  enter  camp.  Camp  is 
always  taken  so  that  one  face  of  the  square  is  to  the  Liman, 
and  the  other  turns  its  back  to  the  enemy  —  if  there  is 
an  enemy. 

I  have  already  had  the  honour  of  tellmg  your  Majesty  of 
the  great  inconvenience  caused  by  the  scarcity  of  pontoons. 
The  four  hundred  and  fifty  feet  width  of  the  Bog  cost  us 
twelve  days.  There  is  no  communication  with  Kherson 
except  by  the  Liman,  the  navigation  of  which  is  so  danger- 
ous that  the  other  day,  returning  with  Prince  Potemkin 
from  the  fleet,  we  came  near  being  drowned,  and  Paul  Jones 
and  Nassau  had  water  to  the  knees  in  their  boat.  The 
Prince's  army  is  pretty  well  paid ;  that  of  Eomanzow  is  not 
paid  at  all.  The  colonels,  who  did  not  report  that  they  had 
four  hundred  men  and  horses  less  than  they  are  credited, 


^yrt^n^^  -.-j^/e-z^.^^.g^ 


Memoik  of  the  pkince  de  ligne.  ^'j 

have  advanced  the  30,000  roubles  they  will  draw  for  them, 
with  which  they  pay  their  actual  force,  and  the  empress  will 
pay  the  colonels  when  she  can.  Her  funds  are  exhausted,  and 
her  credit  so  low  that  in  changmg  a  bill  of  100  roubles  into 
small  paper  one  loses  ten  roubles.  It  is  impossible  to  make 
a  foreign  war  in  this  way.  The  seductive  curtain  which 
covered  the,  lack  of  real  means  is  now,  unfortunately,  raised, 
and  foreign  Courts  will  soon  see  what  is  no  longer  a  mys- 
tery in  this  country.  Always  the  superfluous,  never  the 
necessary. 

The  Prince  of  Nassau  proposed  to  Prince  Potemkin  to 
demolish  the  remains  of  the  Turkish  fleet,  now  sheltered 
under  the  walls  of  the  town,  and  to  burn  the  latter,  urging, 
as  I  did  also,  that  an  assault  be  made  at  the  same  time  on 
the  land  side.  This  fourth  battle  did  Nassau  as  much 
honour  as  the  three  former.  At  half-past  three  o'clock  in 
the  morning  a  diversion  was  made  with  four  big  siege  guns, 
which  are  all  we  have  while  awaiting  the  hundred  and 
twenty  now  on  the  way.  They  also  brought  up  twelve 
12-pounders  and  a  few  mortars  ;  which  did  not  make  a 
very  grand  effect.  But  Prince  Potemkin,  with  all  his 
cavalry  under  fire  from  the  fort,  made  a  great  demonstra- 
tion to  impress  the  enemy  with  the  idea  that  he  meant  to 
invest,  and  should  attack  any  and  all  who  came  out.  He 
placed  his  cannon  himself  on  the  open  plain,  without  so 
much  as  a  ditch  or  any  sort  of  defence,  and  stood  by  them, 
almost  within  range  of  the  musketry  from  the  intrench- 
ments,  —  the  glitter  of  the  diamonds  round  the  portrait  of 
the  empress  which  he  always  wears  at  his  button-hole  draw- 
ing several  shots.  He  has  a  noble  valour,  and  his  presence 
animated  the  artillery-men,  who  aimed  well. 

This  httle  combat  on  land,  that  on  the  Liman,  the  blow- 
ing up  of  the  vessels,  the  town  in  flames,  all  seen  at  the 

Ver.  7  Mem.  6 


78  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

same  time  from  all  points,  made  a  sight  superbly  horrible. 
The  battalions  of  chasseurs,  exposed  from  head  to  foot, 
showed  a  fine  composure.  Prince  Potemkin  reconnoitred  the 
fort  thoroughly,  helped  by  the  Cossacks  who  were  burning 
and  pillaging  the  suburbs.  The  fortress  could  have  been 
taken  then  with  the  utmost  ease.  In  vain  I  told  him  so ; 
he  would  not  believe  me.  As  general-in-chief,  known  to  be 
so,  and  wearing  the  uniform,  I  offered  to  lead  the  troops  in, 
without  avail  Instead  of  that  he  named  me  in  his  report 
as  having  figured  well  among  the  bullets  that  fell  around 

him  like  hail ! 

August  3,  1788. 

The  Rear-admiral  Paul  Jones  has  to-day,  for  his  first 
exploit,  passed  with  his  three  frigates  to  the  other  side  of 
Hassan  Pacha's  redoubt,  and  captured  a  boat  without  a  crew. 
There  is  reason  to  think  he  owes  his  reputation  to  a  desire 
to  enrich  himself.  He  has  not  yet  done  what  he  could  have 
done ;  he  only  serves  to  hinder  Nassau  and  encourage  the 
prince,  who  does  not  like  the  latter  to  risk  anything. 

It  will  not  be  your  Majesty's  fault  if  these  delays  allow 
time  for  the  Turks  to  send  a  land  force  to  trouble  us  and 
perhaps  compel  us  to  abandon  the  siege.  I  do  not  know 
why  some  of  those  Moldavian  detachments  do  not  come 
down  for  that  purpose ;  Mardchal  Romanzow  would  let 
them  through.  We  live  from  day  to  day  and  apparently 
no  arrangements  are  being  made  for  victuallmg  the  army. 
The  next  campaign  will  be  without  money  and  without 
credit  in  a  foreign  land.  Disciphne,  that  good  mother  of  the 
Russian  armies,  is  already  relaxing ;  the  men  have  taken 
to  firing  about  their  camps  hke  the  Turks.  I  have  noticed 
a  queer  fashion  the  Turks  have  in  sending  their  3-pound  shot 
into  our  camp,  which  is  httle  over  a  mile  distant.  They 
wrap  them  up  in  quantities  of  rags  and  fire  them  from  their 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  79 

24-pounders.  They  seem  to  have  plenty  of  provisions,  and 
though  the  capitan-pacha  can  do  notliing,  his  presence  so 
encourages  the  men  that  the  morning  after  his  arrival  they 
shouted  to  our  guards :  "  Stoupay,  Moscow."  They  will 
defend  themselves  weU ;  and  sooner  or  later  those  intrench- 
ments  will  have  to  be  rushed. 

I  forgot,  apropos  of  the  siege,  to  tell  your  Majesty  that, 
M.  de  La  Fayette  having  sent  me  what  he  caUed  a  French 
engineer  named  Marolles  to  manage  the  siege,  I  took  him  to 
Prince  Potemkin.  "  How  soon  do  you  want  the  place  taken, 
general  ? "  he  said.  "  Why,  as  soon  as  you  can,"  replied  the 
prince.  "  Have  you  a  copy  of  Vauban,"  said  my  original, 
"  or  Cohorn  ?  And  I  would  also  like  Saint-E^my,  to  brush 
up  what  I  have  forgotten,  or  I  may  say  never  known ;  for  I 
am  only  an  engineer  of  bridges  and  highways."  The  prince, 
who  is  always  kind  and  amiable  when  he  has  time,  began  to 
laugh  and  said :  "  Go  and  rest  after  your  journey  ;  don't  kill 
yourself  with  reading ;  I  '11  send  you  something  to  eat  in 
your  tent," 

To  the  Comte  de  Segur. 

Camp  before  Oczako-w,  August  10, 1788. 

Here  in  my  tent,  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  on  the 
hottest  of  nights  which  prevents  me  from  sleeping,  I  go  over 
in  my  mind  the  extraordinary  things  which  are  passing 
daily  before  my  eyes.  I  have  seen  four  naval  battles  won 
by  a  volunteer  who  has  had  nothing  but  glory  and  brilliant 
adventures  since  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age ;  brave  as  a  lad, 
and  the  prettiest  little  aide-de-camp  of  a  general  who  worked 
him  hard ;  then  lieutenant  of  infantry,  captain  of  dragoons  ; 
courteous  knight,  avenging  the  injuries  of  women,  redressing 
the  wrongs  of  society ;  in  the  midst  of  the  stormiest  youth, 
but  always  of  the  better  species,  leaving,  to  make  a  tour  of 


80  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE, 

the  world,  his  pleasures,  for  which  he  found  a  momen- 
tary compensation  in  the  Queen  of  Otaheiti,  and  in  killing 
monsters  like  Hercules.  Keturning  to  Europe,  he  was 
colonel  in  the  French  service  of  an  infantry  regiment,  com- 
mander of  a  regiment  of  German  cavalry,  without  under- 
standing German,  leader  of  an  expedition  as  captain  of  a 
ship,  half-burned  and  sunk,  in  the  service  of  Spain,  major- 
general  of  the  Spanish  army,  a  general  officer  in  the  service 
of  three  countries  (of  which  he  did  not  know  the  languages), 
and  the  most  brilliant  vice-admiral  that  Eussia  has  ever  had. 

Nassau-Siegen  by  birth,  become  Nassau-Sieger  by  exploits 
—  for  you  know  that  Sieger  in  German  means  Conqueror  in 
French  —  he  is  recognized  in  Madrid  as  an  ancient  grandee  of 
Spain,  though  he  did  not  know  it,  and  everywhere  as  prince 
of  the  Holy  Eoman  Empire,  which  nevertheless  has  given 
his  principality  to  others.  If  injustice  had  not  deprived 
him  of  it  he  might,  at  least  for  a  time,  have  wasted  his  im- 
petuous nature  on  wild  boars  and  perhaps  on  poachers, 
though  his  taste  for  danger  would  soon  have  told  him  what 
his  value  was  for  war. 

What  is  the  secret  of  his  witchery  ?  His  sword  is  the 
wand  of  the  sorcerer.  His  own  action  the  dictionary  to  his 
words  and  sciences,  and  that  sword  is  still  further  his  inter- 
preter by  the  successful  way  it  points  to  the  shortest  method 
of  attack.  Two  eyes,  more  or  less  large,  which  he  sometimes 
makes  as  terrible  to  his  friends  as  to  the  enemy,  complete 
the  explanation  of  him.  His  manoeuvre  lies  in  his  coup- 
d'ceil ;  his  talent  in  the  experience  that  ardour  has  made  him 
seek ;  his  science  in  his  short,  concise,  clear  orders,  given  on 
the  day  of  battle,  easy  to  report,  easy  to  comprehend ;  his 
merit  m  the  precision  of  his  ideas ;  his  resources  in  the  grand 
and  well-marked  character  to  be  read  in  his  face,  in  his  suc- 
cesses, and  in  his  courage,  unequalled,  both  of  body  and  mind. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  TRINCE  DE   LIGNE.  81 

I  see  the  commander  of  an  army,  who  seems  to  be  lazy 
and  works  without  ceasing ;  who  has  no  desk  but  his  knees, 
no  comb  but  his  fingers ;  always  in  bed  and  never  sleeping 
day  or  night  because  his  ardour  for  his  sovereign,  whom  he 
adores,  incessantly  agitates  him  ;  while  a  single  cannon-shot, 
which  does  not  come  nigh  him,  makes  him  wretched  with 
the  thought  that  it  costs  the  lives  of  some  of  his  soldiers ; 
timid  for  others,  brave  for  himself,  pausing  under  the  fierce 
fire  of  a  battery  to  give  orders ;  more  Ulysses,  nevertheless, 
than  Achilles  ;  uneasy  before  danger,  gay  when  in  it,  sad  in 
pleasures.  Unhappy  because  so  fortunate ;  hlase  about 
everything,  easily  disgusted  ;  morose,  inconstant ;  a  profound 
philosopher,  able  minister,  splendid  pohtician,  child  of  ten 
years  old  ;  never  vindictive,  asking  pardon  for  a  pain  he  may 
have  caused,  quick  to  repair  an  injustice ;  beheving  that  he 
loves  God,  fearing  the  devil,  whom  he  imagines  the  greater 
and  more  powerful  of  the  two  ;  with  one  hand  giving  proofs 
of  his  liking  for  women,  with  the  other  making  signs  of  the 
Cross ;  his  arms  in  crucifix  at  the  feet  of  the  Virgin,  or 
round  the  necks  of  those  who,  thanks  to  him,  have  ceased 
to  be  so;  receiving  benefits  innumerable  from  his  great 
sovereign,  sharing  them  instantly  with  others ;  accepting 
estates,  returning  them  to  the  giver,  or  paying  her  for  them 
without  ever  letting  her  know  it ;  gambhng  incessantly  or 
else  never  touching  a  card  ;  preferring  to  give  than  to  pay  his 
debts ;  enormously  rich,  yet  without  a  penny ;  distrustful 
or  confiding;  jealous  or  grateful;  ill-humoured  or  jovial; 
easily  prejudiced  for  and  against,  returning  as  quickly  from 
either  extreme ;  talking  theology  to  his  generals  and  war  to 
his  archbishops  ;  never  reading,  but  sifting  those  with  whom 
he  talks,  and  contradicting  them  in  order  to  learn  more ;  pre- 
senting the  most  brutal  or  the  most  pleasing  aspect,  manners 
the  most  repulsive  or  tlie  most  attractive ;  with  the  mien  of 


82  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

the  proudest  satrap  of  the  Orient,  or  the  cringing  air  of 
Louis  XIV.'s  courtiers;  a  great  appearance  of  harshness, 
very  soft  in  reality  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart ;  fantastic  as 
to  his  hours,  his  meals,  his  sleep,  his  tastes ;  wanting  all 
things  hke  a  child,  able  to  go  without  everything  like  a 
great  man ;  sober  with  the  air  of  a  gourmand ;  biting  his 
nails,  or  apples,  or  turnips,  scolding  or  laughing,  dissembling 
or  swearing,  playing  or  praying,  singing  or  meditating ;  call- 
ing, dismissing,  and  recalling  twenty  aides-de-camp  without 
anything  to  say  to  them  ;  bearing  heat  as  if  he  thought  only 
of  a  luxurious  bath,  laughing  at  cold,  apparently  able  to  do 
without  furs ;  always  in  a  shirt  and  no  drawers,  or  else  in  a 
uniform  embroidered  on  every  seam,  feet  bare  or  in  spangled 
sHppers,  without  cap  or  hat  (as  I  saw  him  once  under  fire) ; 
in  a  shabby  dressing-gown  or  a  splendid  tunic,  with  his 
three  stars,  ribbons,  and  diamonds  as  big  as  my  thumb  round 
the  portrait  of  the  empress  which  always  attracts  the  bullets ; 
bent  double,  huddled  up,  stunted  when  in  his  own  room; 
tall,  his  nose  in  the  air,  proud,  handsome,  noble,  majestic,  or 
seductive  when  he  shows  himself  to  his  army  with  the  air 
of  an  Agamemnon  amid  the  kings  of  Greece. 

What  is  his  magic  ?  Genius,  and  then  genius,  and  again 
genius ;  natural  intelligence,  an  excellent  memory,  elevation 
of  soul,  mahce  without  malignity,  craft  without  cunning,  a 
happy  mixture  of  caprices,  of  which  the  good  when  they  are 
uppermost  win  him  all  hearts ;  great  generosity,  grace,  and 
justice  in  his  rewards,  much  tact,  the  talent  of  divining 
that  which  he  does  not  know,  and  great  knowledge  of  men. 

I  see  a  cousin  of  the  empress  [Prince  of  Anhalt-Bernberg] 
who  has  the  air  of  being  a  mere  yoimg  officer,  with  his 
modesty  and  his  subhme  simplicity ;  who  is,  for  all  that, 
everything,  and  chooses  to  seem  nothing.  He  unites  all 
talents  and  good  qualities ;  a  lover  of  shots  and  duty ;  doing 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  83 

the  double  of  what  he  has  to  do ;  making  the  most  of  others, 
and  attributing  to  them  what  is  due  to  himself ;  full  of  deli- 
cacy of  soul  and  mind  ;  a  refined  and  very  sure  taste ;  gentle, 
amiable,  though  nothing  escapes  his  notice;  prompt  in  re- 
partee, also  in  execution ;  rigid  in  his  principles ;  indulgent 
to  me  only,  but  severe  to  himself  and  others ;  prodigiously 
well-informed;  a  veritable  genius  for  war,  joined  to  the 
greatest  and  noblest  of  valours,  —  in  a  word,  to  my  thinking, 
perfection. 

I  see  a  phenomenon  from  your  country,  and  a  charming 
phenomenon :  a  Frenchman  of  three  ages,  —  the  chivalry  of 
one,  the  grace  of  another,  and  the  gayety  of  the  present  day. 
Francois  L,  the  Great  Cond^,  and  Mar^chal  de  Saxe  would 
have  been  glad  of  a  son  like  him.  He  is  as  giddy  as  a 
bumble-bee  in  the  midst  of  the  liveliest  cannonading ;  noisy, 
a  pitiless  singer,  yelping  his  songs,  the  finest  airs  of  the  opera, 
at  me ;  fertile  in  the  wildest  quotations ;  more  original  stUl 
in  proposals  and  actions,  and  in  the  midst  of  it  all,  marvel- 
lously clear-sighted.  Guns  do  not  intoxicate  him,  but  he 
glows  with  a  pleasant  ardour,  as  one  does  at  the  end  of  a 
supper.  It  is  only  when  he  wears  an  Order  and  gives  his 
little  counsel  or  takes  some  care  upon  him  that  he  waters 
his  wine.  Always  French  in  soul,  and,  it  may  be,  a  trifle 
vain,  he  is  Russian  in  the  example  which  he  sets  of  subordi- 
nation and  good  deportment.  .  .  .  Amiable,  beloved  by  all, 
and  what  one  calls  a  charming  fellow,  a  brave  fellow,  a  sei- 
gneur of  the  good  tone  of  the  Court  of  France,  —  that  is  what 
Roger  Damas  is. 

I  see  Russian  soldiers  to  whom  they  say,  "  Be  that,"  and 
they  become  it ;  learning  the  hberal  arts  as  "  the  doctor  in 
spite  of  himself"  took  his  degree;  Russians  who  are  made 
in  a  moment  into  foot-soldiers,  sailors,  chasseurs,  priests, 
dragoons,     musicians,    engineers,     comedians,     cuirassiers. 


84  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

painters,  and  surgeons.  I  see  Eussians  who  sing  and  dance 
in  the  trenches  from  which  they  are  never  relieved  under 
the  heaviest  cannonading  and  musketry,  in  the  snow,  in  the 
mud,  clever,  clean,  attentive,  respectful,  obedient,  and  always 
trying  to  read  in  the  eyes  of  their  officers  what  they  want, 
in  order  to  forestall  it. 

I  see  Turks  who  pass  for  not  having  common-sense  in  war, 
but  who  fight  with  a  species  of  method ;  scattering  widely 
so  that  the  artillery  and  the  fire  of  the  battahons  cannot 
be  directed  upon  them.  They  themselves  aim  marvellously 
well ;  firing  always  at  collected  objects,  concealing  their  own 
manoeuvres,  hiding  in  all  the  ravines,  hollows,  and  up  the 
trees ;  or  else  advancing  in  small  bodies  of  forty  or  fifty  with 
a  flag,  which  they  run  very  fast  to  plant  and  secure  the 
ground.  The  first  line  fires  kneeling  and  goes  to  the  rear 
to  reload ;  and  thus  they  succeed  each  other.  This  they  keep 
up,  running  forward  with  their  flag  and  their  revolving  line. 
They  form  a  species  of  alignement  for  these  flags  so  that 
none  of  the  httle  bodies  covers  another.  Frightful  howls,  cries 
of  "  Allah !  "  encourage  the  Mussulmans,  frighten  the  Chris- 
tians and,  with  the  addition  of  a  few  chopped-off  heads,  have 
a  really  terrible  effect.  Where  the  devil  did  my  father  and 
three  uncles,  who  all  fought  the  Turks,  get  the  idea  that  they 
marched,  as  the  geese  fly,  in  a  triangle,  or  like  the  cuneus  of 
the  ancients  ?  I  have  never  seen  anything  to  make  me  think 
that  such  a  fashion  ever  existed. 

Do  they  know  in  Petersburg  of  the  death  of  Ivan  Maxime, 

whose   rhyme   and  reason   inspired   you   with   that  choice 

couplet,  — 

"  His  heart  may  be  given  to  virtue, 
But  his  face  is  a  picture  of  crime  "  ? 

He  was  killed  behind  us,  by  a  cannon-ball  which  passed 
between  Prince  Potemkin  and  me. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   TRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  85 

To  the  Same. 

Camp  before  Oczakow,  Sept.  15,  1788. 
All  things  remain  in  statu  quo.  Nothing  is  done,  or  even 
planned.  I  turn  my  mind  as  much  as  may  be  to  other 
things,  and  Europe  is  indeed  so  thoroughly  muddled  at  this 
moment  that  it  is  high  time,  as  I  think,  to  reflect  about  it. 
France  writes ;  unfortunately  our  empire  reads.  The  soldiers 
of  the  Bishop  of  Lifege  are  in  full  march  against  the  bankers 
of  Spa.  The  Low  Countries  are  revolting,  without  knowing 
why,  against  their  sovereign.  Soon,  no  doubt,  they  will 
begin  to  kill  each  other  in  order  to  have  more  liberty  and 
happiness.  Austria,  threatened  in  her  very  bosom,  is  feebly 
threatening  her  friends  and  enemies,  whom  she  scarcely 
knows  apart.  England  —  which  never  agrees  with  England ! 
—  has  a  majority  in  favour  of  Prussia,  who  is  already  firing 
shots  in  Holland.  Proud  Spain,  who  once  upon  a  time  fitted 
out  armadas,  is  uneasy  if  a  single  English  vessel  sails  from 
port.  Italy  is  afraid  of  her  lazzaroni  and  free-thinkers. 
Denmark  is  on  her  guard  against  Sweden,  and  Sweden 
against  Eussia.  The  Tartars,  the  Georgians,  the  Im- 
morets,  the  Circassians  are  killing  the  Eussians.  Our  jour- 
ney to  the  Crimea  exasperated  the  Crescent.  The  pachas  of 
Egypt  are  fighting  the  Turks.  "  To  arms  ! "  they  are  crying 
everywhere.  I  do  not  cease  to  be  an  observer ;  and  although 
I  am  an  actor  in  the  present  scene,  I  take  that  and  all 
that  is  happening  about  me  as  a  mere  kick  in  the  ant-hilL 
What  are  we  more  than  ants,  poor  human  creatures  that  we 
are  ?  .  .  . 

To  E.  I.  Majesty  Joseph  II. 

Camp  before  Oczakow,  October  8,  1788. 
I  am  so  grieved  at  the  condition  of  your  Majesty's  health 
that  I  cannot  refrain  from  satisfying  my  heart  by  describing 


86  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

what  has  passed  within  it  since  I  received  the  letter  of  Sep- 
tember 27,  with  which  you  have  honoured  me.  Your  health 
gives  me  far  more  anxiety  than  the  Turks,  as  to  whom  there 
will  certainly  soon  come  some  occasion  to  get  the  better  of 
them,  and  the  first  will  lead  to  others.  It  is  not  my  talents 
that  I  desire  to  offer  to  your  Majesty,  but  my  willingness,  my 
activity,  and  the  assurance  that  I  will  never  abandon  my 
post  while  I  live.  The  most  horrible  hole,  or  dreadful  cavern, 
or  the  worst  of  defiles  to  guard  wiU  seem  to  me  dehghtful 
winter-quarters  if  I  can  be  useful  in  your  service;  and  in 
any  country,  with  any  number  or  any  kind  of  troops  that 
may  be  intrusted  to  me,  I  will  answer  for  the  zeal  with  which 
I  will  command,  and  the  readiness  with  which  I  will  go 
wherever  ordered. 

After  all  these  months  before  Oczakow  I  am  about  to  start 
again  for  the  army  under  Mardchal  Eomanzow,  whence  Baron 
de  Herbert  writes  me  that  I  may  be  able  to  help  him  to  ac- 
complish something  if  the  enemy  is  allowed  in  Wallachia  — 
so  easy  for  the  Kussians  to  occupy  !  At  any  rate,  it  will  be 
a  diversion,  and  if  none  is  made  this  empire  will  be  dishon- 
oured in  the  eyes  of  all  Europe.  I  leave  on  Sunday.  Seeing 
that  I  cannot  obtain  sufficient  influence  over  Prince  Po- 
temkin's  mind,  —  not  more,  in  fact,  than  others,  —  I  separate 
from  him  on  good  terms,  and  with  much  regret  on  his  part, 
which  may  be  useful  under  other  circumstances.  Perhaps 
at  a  distance  and  by  letter  my  advice  and  solicitations  may 
have  some  effect.  His  frigates  have  arrived,  but  he  does  not 
yet  attack.  Meanwhile,  the  capitan-pacha  is  daily  receiving 
reinforcements  and  will,  apparently,  undertake  some  enter- 
prise. He  has,  at  the  present  moment,  ninety  vessels,  having 
repaired  those  which  were  disabled  in  the  four  engagements 
of  last  summer. 

They  have  made  the  Prince  of  Nassau  pay  dear  for  his 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PKINCE  DE  LIGNE.  87 

victories.  Part  of  his  fleet  has  been  given  to  Paul  Jones  (in 
addition  to  the  latter's  own  three  frigates),  to  whom  the 
prince  intends  to  intrust  the  chief  commission  for  the  bom- 
bardment whenever  it  takes  place.  In  spite  of  a  private 
letter  from  the  prince,  who  feared  the  wrong-headedness  of 
Paul  Jones,  the  latter  has  refused  to  salute  the  flag  of  the 
vice-admiral,  —  which  M.  de  Nassau  since  then  has  not 
raised;  announcing  that  he  shall  leave  the  moment  that 
Oczakow  is  taken. 

To  the  Same. 

Jasst,  October  22,  1788. 

SlEE,  —  I  found  Mar^chal  Eomanzow  on  my  arrival  full  of 
the  utmost  good-will,  which  may  or  may  not  continue.  He 
has  almost  promised  me  to  attack  the  Turks  at  Roboiai- 
Mohilai.  As  it  is  impossible  to  trust  a  single  word  in  these 
armies  I  will  not  guarantee  that  his  whole  army  will  pass 
the  winter  in  Moldavia,  but  I  think  I  can  assure  your  Majesty 
that  he  will  leave  a  large  part  of  it,  —  half,  I  hope,  between 
the  Dniester  and  the  Pruth,  and  half  between  the  Pruth  and 
the  Serith. 

As  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  have  any  illusions  as  to  the 
Russians  or  to  hope  any  longer,  I  venture  to  take  the  liberty 
to  assure  your  Majesty  that  if  one  of  your  corps  does  not 
make,  in  the  direction  of  the  Danube,  the  diversion  that  we 
had  the  right  to  expect  of  our  allies,  things  will  go  on  as 
they  are  now.  The  reasons,  true  or  false,  about  the  lack  of 
supplies  and  the  antechamber  intrigues,  of  which  the  Rus- 
sians are  thinking  much  more  than  they  are  of  the  enemy, 
will  continue  to  keep  them  useless  to  us.  Her  Majesty  the 
empress  knows  nothing  of  what  is  going  on ;  she  is  ignorant, 
though  I  have  written  it  by  post  to  our  ambassador,  that  her 
troops  have  made  the  most  shameful  of  campaigns.     She  is 


88  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

thinking  only  of  rewarding  them,  preparing  ribbons  and 
medals  for  battles  that  will  never  be  fought.  Even  the  tak- 
ing of  Oczakow  at  this  late  day  will  not  make  much  change 
in  the  situation. 

To  the  Same. 

Jasst,  November  18,  1788. 

At  the  end  of  a  month  without  news  from  Prince  Po- 
temkin,  a  courier  arrived  yesterday.  Mar^chal  Eomanzow 
tells  me  that  the  Prince  of  Nassau  had  started  for  Warsaw, 
Paul  Jones  for  Petersburg,  Dolgoroucki  for  Moscow,  Branicki 
for  Bielaczerkew.  The  capitan-pacha  still  remains.  The 
prince  writes  that  he  believes  he  shall  be  obliged  to  come  to 
an  assault.  The  courier  says  the  troops  are  in  a  miserable 
plight ;  as  may  well  be  believed  with  no  wood  to  bum  and 
far  from  everything. 

Cadet  Beniatsch  has  this  moment  returned,  bringing  me 
the  letter  from  Semlin  with  which  your  Majesty  has  hon- 
oured me.  The  chief  object  of  his  mission  is  accomplished, 
which  was  to  see  your  Majesty  himself  and  bring  me  an 
exact  account  of  your  health,  which  I  hear  with  the  utmost 
joy  is  better. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  with  the  keenest  sentiments  of 
gratitude  for  what  your  Majesty  has  deigned  to  say  to  me  in 
your  last  two  touching  letters,  and  with  as  much  attachment 
as  respect,  etc. 

To  the  Same. 

Jasst,  November  30,  1788. 
I  can  never  sufficiently  express  to  your  Majesty  the  double 
happiness  you  have  given  me  :  that  of  allowing  me  to  return 
to  you  is  the  greatest ;  and  next  is  that  of  being  informed 
of  your  permission  by  my  son  Charles,  who  is  as  much  at- 
tached to  your  Majesty  as  I  am  myself.     I  shall  profit  shortly 


MEMOIR   OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  89 

by  the  greatest  favour  I  could  have  received ;  that  is,  as  soon 
as  I  have  received  certain  information,  which  it  will  be  wise 
for  me  to  obtain  before  leaving;  although,  in  truth,  little 
more  is  needed  than  that  which  I  have  given  your  Majesty 
in  my  last  two  letters  concerning  an  empire  from  which 
there  is  nothing  to  hope  and  will  be  nothing  to  fear  for  a 
very  long  time.  No  plan  of  campaign  is  possible  until  the 
taking  of  Oczakow  or  the  raising  of  the  siege.  Moreover, 
Prince  Potemkin,  who  makes  no  reply  either  in  words  or 
writing,  will  never  explain  himself,  being  firmly  resolved  to 
do,  as  he  told  me  himself,  only  what  he  chooses,  and  never 
what  any  one,  even  the  empress,  orders  him  to  do. 

To  E.  I.  M.  Catherine  11. 

Jassy,  November  30, 1788. 

I  cannot  take  a  sheet  of  paper  large  enough  to  tell  your 
Imperial  Majesty  that  I  leave  your  person  with  a  regret  that 
you  alone  could  imagine,  if  you  did  yourself  justice  —  the 
only  justice  that  you  never  do. 

When  one  is  gay  one  takes  a  little  sheet  of  paper  and 
scribbles  it  over  with  a  wretched  pen,  and  perhaps  a  few 
paltry  verses ;  but  alas !  this  is  prose.  Charles  has  just 
arrived  with  a  letter  from  the  emperor  in  which  his  Imperial 
Majesty  has  the  kindness  to  recall  me  to  himself,  that  I  may 
have  the  happiness  of  serving  under  his  own  eye. 

I  shall  carry  back  to  Hungary  the  two  most  beautiful 
dreams  of  my  life,  —  my  journey  to  Petersburg,  and  that  to 
Taurica.  I  must  await  a  time  more  tranquil  to  go  again  to 
the  feet  of  your  Majesty  ;  but  I  shall  dream  in  that  direction 
as  soon  as  may  be  after  endeavouring  to  give  to  his  Imperial 
Majesty,  under  his  own  eye,  some  proofs  of  my  zeal  for  the 
two  empires. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  with  boundless  attachment  and 
respect,  Madame,  etc. 


90  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

The  Empress  Catherine  to  the  Prince  de  Ligne, 

Petersbcrg,  December  2, 1788. 

Monsieur  le  Prince  de  Ligne,  —  In  order  to  take 
leave  of  me  on  departing  from  Jassy,  you  have  written  me, 
November  30,  a  letter  on  a  sheet  of  paper  as  large  as  those 
used  in  the  public  offices  for  discharging  employes.  When 
I  saw  the  size  of  that  missive  I  thought  it  an  evil  omen, 
and  I  found  I  was  not  mistaken.  Certainly,  after  a  pro- 
longed visit  of  two  years  one  ought  not  to  think  it  strange 
that  a  person  who  is  not  condemned  to  live  among  us  should 
leave  us ;  but  stiU,  there  are  people  in  the  world  from  whom 
we  cannot  part  without  regret. 

It  is  your  son  who  draws  you  to  the  army  of  the  emperoi, 
to  serve,  you  tell  me,  under  his  Majesty's  own  eye.  Valour, 
honour,  happiness,  and  fortune  will  no  doubt  guide  your 
steps.  Be  assured  of  the  sincere  interest  that  I  shall  take 
in  the  brilliant  successes  that  you  cannot  fail  to  obtain. 

If  our  campaign  among  the  arid  rocks  of  Finland  has  not 
been  wonderful  [she  was  then  at  war  with  Sweden],  at  least 
we  have  lost  no  battle,  and  not  one  inch  of  the  soil  that 
belongs  to  us.  I  was  brought  up  to  love  and  respect  re- 
publics, but  experience  has  convinced  me  that  the  more 
people  we  get  together  to  reason,  the  more  unreasonable  is 
what  they  say. 

To  Prince  Kaunitz  [^Austrian  Prime  Minister']. 

Jassy,  December  15, 1788. 

I  have  executed  the  orders  of  your  Highness  with  regard 
to  the  ill-advised  malice  of  the  Eussian  emissaries  among 
the  Montenegrins,  or  rather  in  those  who  sent  them  there. 

Allies  who  wish  to  be  friends  (they  are  often  the  one  and 
not  the  other)  should  keep  an  eye  on  blundering  officers 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  91 

That  is  why  I  wrote  very  seriously  to  the  Prince  of  Coburg 
to  punish  the  officer  who  summoned  Choczim,  "Distrust 
the  Eussians,"  he  said  to  the  pacha ;  "  do  not  surrender  to 
them ;  they  are  barbarians." 

It  is  to  avoid  all  asperities,  which  are  very  prejudicial  to  the 
service,  that  I  have  interrupted  my  correspondence  with  the 
empress  ;  I  could  not  have  kept  myself  from  telling  her  that 
I  was  apparently  taken  by  her  people  here  for  a  Turkish 
spy.  In  order  not  to  have  an  accusing  air,  and  yet  to  show 
matters  of  friendly  complaint,  I  wrote  the  other  day  to  M. 
de  S^gur  hy  post  saying  that  they  did  not  place  confidence 
enough  in  me. 

I  can  be  employed  in  pohtical  affairs  as  an  enfant  perdu, 
and  disavowed  as  much  as  any  one  hkes.  That  is  how 
I  said  one  day  to  Prince  Potemkin  that  if  he  would  march 
along  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Danube,  and 
make  Eomanzow  march  to  Bucharest,  I  could  succeed  in 
making  him  Hospodar  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia.  "I 
scorn  it,"  he  replied.  "  I  bet  I  could  be  king  of  Poland  if  I 
chose;  I  have  already  refused  to  be  Duke  of  Courlande. 
I  am  much  more  than  all  that."  "  Well,  at  least,"  I  said, 
"make  those  two  countries  (Moldavia  and  Wallachia)  in- 
dependent of  the  Turks  at  the  peace ;  let  them  be  governed 
by  their  boyards  under  the  protection  of  the  two  empires." 
To  this  he  replied,  "  We  will  see  about  it." 

Your  Highness  will  remember,  no  one  better,  the  moral  of 
the  fable  of  the  lark  and  her  fledglings.  We  can  depend  on 
none  but  ourselves  ;  and  I  believe  we  have  these  allies  only 
to  make  sure  that  they  are  not  entirely  our  enemies.  If  M. 
de  Loudon  were  here  with  twenty  thousand  men  he  could 
do  the  task  I  have  urged  upon  Eomanzow.  If  we  began  by 
Belgrade  or  even  Orsowa,  joined  to  what  has  been  already 
done  in  Bosnia,  I  wiU  answer  for  it  the  war  would  be  finished 


92  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

by  next  June.  Such  operations  would  draw  the  whole 
strength  or  rather  weakness  of  the  Ottomans  upon  us,  and 
then  my  colossus  might  bestir  himself.  He  is  an  emblem 
of  his  empii'e,  —  a  mine  of  gold  and  arid  steppes ;  but  my 
Potemkin  is  the  better  fed  colossus  of  the  two;  the  other 
dwindles  as  it  enlarges. 

May  God  preserve  to  the  world  the  great  and  immortal 
empress.  But  as  that  can  be  only  in  history,  I  think  we 
ought  to  manage  with  extreme  care  the  grand-duke,  who, 
while  he  reforms  a  miUion  of  abuses,  spends  miUions  in 
generosities  and  is  prompt,  ardent,  and  capable  of  work, 
changing  too  often  his  opinions  and  his  friends  ever  to  have 
a  favourite  or  a  mistress,  may  prove  very  much  to  be  feared 
some  day,  if  his  mother  leaves  him  the  empii-e.  I  think  that 
if  she  has  time  she  will  leave  it  to  the  little  Grand-Duke 
Alexander,  for  she  alienates  her  son  from  pubHc  affairs  as 
much  as  she  encourages  her  grandson  by  the  attention  she 
gives  to  forming  him  herself,  young  as  he  is,  for  government. 
His  father  at  the  present  moment  is  altogether  Prussian. 
But  that  may  only  be  as  M.  le  Dauphin  was  pious,  be- 
cause Louis  XV.  was  not.  However,  he  is  extremely  fickle ; 
albeit  during  the  short  time  he  wants,  or  loves,  or  hates 
anything,  it  is  with  violence  and  obstinacy.  He  detests  his 
nation,  and  said  to  me  once  at  Gatschina  that  the  Eussians 
were  scoundrels  who  wanted  to  be  governed  by  none  but 
women. 

I  have  succeeded  in  three  things  only:  first,  in  making 
them  give  the  fleet  to  the  Prince  of  Nassau,  who  took  or 
burned  thirty-six  vessels  large  and  small,  killed  or  drowned 
five  thousand  men,  and  captured  578  cannon ;  and  next  I 
made  Potemkin  cross  the  Bog,  and  Eomanzow  the  Dniester. 
I  may  also  put  Choczim  into  the  list  of  my  military  exploits 
morally,  because  it  was  by  dint  of  sending  couriers  that  I 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LlGNE.  93 

made  them  attack ;  and  I  have  also  obtained  the  assurance  of 
the  empress  that  it  shall  be  ours  at  the  peace  —  such  peace 
as  they  can  make. 

I  beg  your  Highness  to  continue  your  kindnesses,  the 
habit  of  bestowing  which  ever  since  my  childhood  makes 
you  so  often  call  me  "my  son."  I  feel  that  title  in  the 
respect  and  tenderness  that  I  devote  to  you. 

To  the   Comte  de  Segur. 

Before  the  Camp  of  Roboiai-Mohilai,  otherwise  Jassy,  where  I 
have  my  headquarters,  December  18, 1788. 

I  expected  to  have  told  you  long  before  this  of  an  easy 
victory  over  the  sultan,  prince  in  partibus  of  the  Crimea, 
over  Ibrahim-Nazir  and  the  Seraskier  of  Ismail.  I  counted 
on  the  fete  of  Saint  Gregory,  Prince  Potemkin's  patron,  but 
alas !  I  am  still  a  vox  damans  in  deserto. 

The  Turks,  who  always,  just  like  game,  have  the  same  runs 
and  the  same  burrows,  collect  at  the  beginning  of  every  war 
in  the  camp  of  Roboiai-Mohilai.  This  time  they  had  the 
cleverness  to  place  it  sideways  so  that  they  could  easily  have 
been  attacked  and  beaten.  But  now  the  fifteen  or  twenty 
thousand  men,  who  were  made  to  pass  for  fifty  thousand, 
have  departed.  I  find  myself  in  a  land  of  enchantment 
after  Servia,  the  country  of  the  Nogais  and  Budjaks,  Tar- 
tary,  and  the  neighbourhood  of  Bessarabia,  from  which  I 
have  just  emerged.  A  long  and  dreadful  winter  in  a  hut 
placed  in  the  middle  of  a  redoubt  full  of  snow  and  mud, 
without  anything  to  look  at  but  the  sky,  the  sea,  and  a 
stretch  of  plain  three  hundred  leagues  long,  followed  by  a 
campaign  of  six  months  doing  nothing,  was  surely  enough  to 
make  me  think  this  place  most  dehghtful. 

After  I  departed  from  Elisabeth-Gorod  I  never  saw  a  house 
or  a  tree,  except  those  in  the  pacha's  garden  close  to  the  in- 

Ver.  7  Mem.  7 


94  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

trenchments  at  Oczakow.  I  went  under  fire  from  the  fort 
guns  and  kissed  some  of  those  trees,  I  had  such  pleasure  in 
seeing  them ;  I  even  gathered  and  ate  some  of  their  apricots. 
Water  as  green  as  the  dead  bodies  of  five  thousand  Turks 
was  all  we  had  to  drink  for  five  months,  except  the  water  of 
the  Black  Sea,  which  is  not  so  salt  as  other  seas.  Imagine 
therefore  my  happiness  when  I  came  upon  a  charming  foun- 
tain on  the  heights  that  overlook  Jassy.  I  kissed  the  water 
before  I  drank  of  it.  I  devoured  it  with  my  eyes  before  I 
wet  my  lips,  which  for  so  long  had  been  moistened  by  noth- 
ing so  delicious. 

I  am  lodged  in  one  of  those  superb  palaces  which  the 
boyards  build  in  the  Eastern  style,  more  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty  of  which  rise  high  above  the  other  edifices  in  this 
capital  of  Moldavia.  Charming  women,  nearly  all  from  Con- 
stantinople and  of  ancient  Greek  families,  sit  neghgently  on 
their  divans,  their  heads  lying  back,  or  supported  sometimes 
by  an  alabaster  arm.  The  men  who  visit  them  almost  lie  at 
their  feet.  A  very  short,  scant  skirt  only  slightly  covers  their 
charming  shape,  and  a  gauze  scarf  defines  the  pretty  outlines 
of  their  throat  and  bust.  They  wear  upon  their  heads  a  stuff 
that  is  either  black  or  scarlet  in  the  shape  of  a  turban  or  cap, 
glittering  with  diamonds.  Pearls  of  the  purest  white  are  on 
their  neck  and  arms,  round  which  they  sometimes  wear  strips 
of  gauze  studded  with  sequins  and  half-ducats.  I  have  seen 
as  many  as  three  thousand  worn  by  one  lady.  The  rest  of 
their  Eastern  apparel  is  of  stuffs  embroidered  in  silver  and 
gold  and  edged  with  the  choicest  furs ;  so  are  the  costumes 
of  the  boyards,  which  only  differ  from  those  of  the  Turks  in 
the  cap  that  they  wear  above  the  red  fez,  which  looks  some- 
what like  a  turban. 

The  wives  of  the  boyards,  like  the  sultanas,  always  hold  in 
their  hands  a  sort  of  chaplet  of  diamonds,  pearl,  coral,  lapis 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  95 

lazuli,  or  some  rare  wood  which  serves  them  for  attitudiniz- 
ing, like  the  fan  of  our  women.  They  flirt  it  and  display 
their  agile  fingers,  the  nails  of  which  are  dyed  red,  telling 
their  beads,  as  it  were,  and  having  invented  (so  I  am  told)  a 
vocabulary  for  their  lovers.  I  fancied  I  caught  the  looks 
of  two  or  three  husbands  curious  to  know  whether  I  could 
understand  the  pretty  alphabet  of  gallantry.  The  hour  for  a 
rendezvous  could  easily  be  given  in  that  way ;  but  how 
obtain  the  rendezvous  itself  ?  Seven  or  eight  of  the  boyard's 
serving-men,  and  as  many  young  girls  waiting  on  the  wives, 
are  always  in  the  apartment.  Their  costume  differs  only  in 
richness  from  that  of  their  masters  and  mistresses.  Each 
and  all  have  their  own  department.  One  brings,  as  soon  as 
you  enter  to  make  a  visit,  two  or  more  pipes ;  another  a 
saucer  and  little  spoon  with  rose  confectionery;  a  third 
bums  perfumes  or  scatters  essences  which  make  the  salon 
fragrant;  a  fourth  brings  a  cup  of  coffee;  a  fifth  a  glass  of 
water ;  and  this  is  repeated  in  the  houses  of  twenty  boyards 
if  you  go  to  see  that  number  in  one  day ;  and  it  would  be 
considered  a  great  impoliteness  to  refuse  these  civilities. 

The  weather  is  warm.  I  dress  hke  the  boyards.  I  often 
go  among  them  to  think  without  distraction,  for  I  know 
only  a  few  Wallach  words  and  no  modern  Greek,  which  the 
ladies  speak,  despising  the  language  of  their  husbands.  But, 
in  any  case,  the  boyards  speak  little.  The  fear  they  have 
of  the  Turks,  the  habit  of  expecting  evil,  and  the  tyranny 
which  the  Divan  at  Constantinople  and  the  hospodar  exer- 
cise over  their  minds  have  brought  them  to  a  state  of  un- 
conquerable sadness.  Persons  assembling  every  day  in  one 
another's  houses  have  an  air  of  awaiting  the  fatal  bowstring. 
One  hears  it  said  repeatedly,  "Here  my  father  was  slain 
by  order  of  the  Porte,"  or,  "  There  my  sister  was  killed 
by  the  prince's  order." 


96  MEMOIR  OP  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

When  I  say  that  I  go  among  the  boyards  to  think,  I 
mean  that  I  go  there  not  to  thmk ;  for  at  the  fourth  pipe 
I  become  a  Turk ;  I  am  nil ;  I  have  no  ideas  ;  and  perhaps 
it  is  the  best  thing  for  me,  being  so  far  away  from  you  and 
all  I  love. 

Constantinople  gives  the  tone  to  Jassy,  as  Paris  to  the 
provinces,  and  the  fashions  arrive  more  quickly.  Yellow 
was  the  favourite  colour  of  the  sultanas  last  year,  and  it 
is  now  the  reigning  hue  among  the  women  of  Jassy.  Long 
pipes  of  cherry-wood  having  superseded  in  Constantinople 
the  jasmine- wood  pipes  of  the  past,  all  we  boyards  are 
smoking  through  cherry-wood  too.  A  boyard  never  goes 
out  on  foot ;  in  that  he  is  quite  as  lazy  as  a  Turk. 

The  ladies  might  dispense  with  having  so  much  stomach ; 
but  it  is  so  well  recognized  here  as  being  a  great  beauty  that 
a  mother  excused  her  daughter  to  me  for  having  none.  "  It 
will  come  in  time,"  she  said,  "  but  now  it  is  really  mortify- 
ing ;  she  is  as  slim  and  straight  as  a  reed."  The  costumes 
and  the  Asiatic  manners  make  the  pretty  ones  prettier,  but 
the  ugly  ones  frightful ;  though  ugly  ones,  to  tell  the  truth, 
are  rare.  It  has  happened  to  me  once  or  twice,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  way  the  women  curl  themselves  round,  to 
mistake  them  when  the  room  was  dark  for  pelisses  thrown 
aside  on  the  divan. 

The  daughters  of  the  boyards  are  shut  up  like  the  Turk- 
ish women  in  harems  behind  wooden  lattices,  often  gilded, 
through  which  they  may  look  at  men  and  select  their  hus- 
bands; but  the  men  may  not  see  their  wives  until  after 
the  very  slight  ceremony  of  the  Greek  church  has  been 
performed. 

I  have  just  given  a  charming  fgte,  which  succeeded  de- 
lightfully. A  hundred  boyards  and  their  wives  to  supper 
and  a  ball ;  at  which  they  danced  the  pyrrhic,  and  other 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  97 

Greek,  Moldavian,  Turkish,  Wallachian,  and  gipsy  dances. 
Those  dances  show  the  origin  of  an  amusement  which  in 
itself  would  be  stupid  were  it  not  for  its  object.  Dancing 
can  have  but  two  motives :  rejoicing  after  victory,  and 
voluptuous  pleasure  in  peace.  These  dancers  held  each 
other  by  the  hand.  Sometimes  they  circled  round,  but 
usually  they  faced  each  other ;  they  gave  each  other  looks ; 
parted,  returned,  approached,  I  hardly  know  how ;  looked 
again,  listened,  divined,  and  seemed  to  love  each  other.  1 
thought  it  a  very  sensible  dance. 

Nothing  in  the  least  resembles  the  situation  of  these 
people.  Suspected  by  the  Eussians  of  preferring  the  Aus- 
trians,  suspected  by  the  Austrians  of  being  secretly  attached 
to  the  Turks,  they  long  for  the  departure  of  the  first  two 
as  much  as  they  dread  the  return  of  the  third.  0  you 
statesmen !  arbiters  of  the  fate  of  these  poor  mortals,  in 
whose  hands  you  have  often  put  arms,  repair  the  evils  that 
you  have  done ;  you  are  more  responsible  than  we,  the  mili- 
tary, who  are  but  the  executors  of  your  decisions.  Serve 
this  humanity  and  benefit  the  policy  of  your  empires  by 
leaving  these  poor  Moldavians  at  'j)eace.  Their  country  is 
so  fine  that  all  Europe  will  cry  out  if  you  attempt  to  dis- 
member it ;  make  them  independent  of  their  Eastern  tyrants, 
let  them  govern  themselves,  and  in  place  of  their  hospodar 
(who  is  forced  to  be  a  scoundrel  or  a  despot  to  pay  court  to 
the  Ottoman  Porte)  give  them  two  boyard  governors,  remov- 
able  every  three  years.  Those  men,  returning  to  their  class 
at  the  end  of  that  time,  will  not  dare  to  abuse  their  authority, 
for  they  would  pay  dearly  for  it  afterwards. 

When  peace  comes  let  the  mediating  Courts  endeavour  to 
frame  for  them  a  code  of  laws,  very  simple  and,  above  all, 
not  traced  out  by  the  hand  of  philosophy,  but  by  good, 
honest,  legal  minds,  who  know  the  cHmate,  the  nature,  the 


98  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PEINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

religion,  and  the  manners  and  customs  of  people  and  coun- 
try. Such  a  code  would  give  sovereign  authority  to  the 
two  great  and  powerful  seigneurs  chosen  to  administer 
the  laws. 

What  an  opening  that  is,  my  dear  S^gur,  for  your  soul  and 
your  mmd !  Become  a  Montesquieu  and  a  Louvois  if  you 
can,  without  ceasing  to  be  a  Racine,  Horace,  and  La  Fontaine. 
Work  for  my  poor  Moldavians  in  some  good  way,  whatever 
it  may  be.  They  treat  me  so  well !  I  love  everything  about 
them ;  especially  their  language,  which  recalls  their  descent 
from  the  Romans.  It  is  an  harmonious  mixture  of  Latin 
and  Italian.  They  say  szluga  for  "  I  wish  you  good-day  ; " 
formos  coconitza  for  "  a  beautiful  girl ; "  sara  hona,  "  good 
evening  ; "  and  dragua-m'i  for  "  I  love  you ; "  which  I  can 
say  to  you  in  twelve  languages,  trusting  that  you  will  say 
it  to  me  in  good  French. 

[The  prince  had  scarcely  left  the  Russian  armies  in 
December,  1788,  before  Prince  Potemkin  stormed  Oczakow 
and  took  it  at  the  end  of  one  hour  and  a  half.  It  seems 
incredible  that  he  should  have  waited  a  whole  year  and 
allowed  (as  we  have  seen)  all  his  chief  commanders  to  dis- 
perse, besides  incurring  untold  expenses,  before  reducing 
a  place  which  took  so  little  time  and  gave  him  so  little 
trouble  to  capture.  The  Prince  de  Ligne  on  receiving  the 
news  wrote  immediately  to  the  Empress  Catherme  to  con- 
gratulate her.     This  is  her  answer :] 

To  the  Prince  de  Ligne. 

February,  1789. 
By  your  letter  of  January  16,  which  I  have  just  received, 
I   see   the   joy  you  feel   at   the   taking  of   Oczakow.     The 
Mar^chal  Prince  Potemkin  tried,  as  was  proper,  aU  measures 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  99 

before  coming  finally  to  an  assault.  The  most  convenient 
time  for  the  operation  was,  undoubtedly,  when  the  Liman, 
being  frozen  over,  made  the  water  side  inaccessible  for 
reinforcements  to  the  besieged,  and  the  place  once  captured, 
this  allowed  time  to  take  all  necessary  precautions  for  the 
future.  But  the  impatience  of  young  men  full  of  courage, 
half-heads,  three-quarter  heads,  envious  persons,  and  open 
and  secret  enemies,  is,  in  all  such  cases,  quite  intolerable, 
and  from  it  the  marshal  has  had  much  to  suffer,  —  a  fact 
that  does  him  the  greatest  honour  in  my  eyes.  Among 
his  other  great  and  good  qualities  I  have  always  seen  that 
of  pardoning  his  enemies  and  doing  them  good;  in  that 
way  he  wins  a  victory.  On  this  occasion  he  has  beaten 
the  Turks  and  those  who  have  criticised  him  in  one  hour 
and  a  half.  Persons  now  say  he  might  have  taken  Oczakow 
sooner :  that  is  true ;  but  never  with  so  little  inconvenience. 
This  is  not  the  first  time  among  us  that  the  sick  have 
left  the  hospitals  to  rush  to  an  assault.  On  many  a  great 
occasion  I  have  known  the  skme  thing  happen.  I  can  tell 
you  more  than  that :  Last  summer  when  the  King  of 
Sweden  attacked  us  suddenly,  I  sent  word  to  the  villages 
of  the  crown  domains  to  give  me  recruits,  and  I  said  that 
they  must  estimate  for  themselves  how  many  they  could 
send.  Well,  what  happened?  A  village  of  one  thousand 
males  sent  me  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  fine  recruits; 
another  of  four  thousand  sent  two  hundred  and  fifty;  a 
third,  of  Czarsko-zelo,  where  there  are  three  thousand 
peasants,  sent  four  hundred  horses  with  men  and  waggons 
for  the  transportation  of  munitions.  All  of  them  made  the 
campaign  in  Finland.  But  that  is  not  all.  The  neighbour- 
ing provinces,  and  then,  little  by  little,  all  the  provinces 
offered  me,  this  one  a  battalion,  that  one  a  squadron ;  the 
city  of   Moscow  alone  would  have  put  ten   thousand   men 


100  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

into  the  field  had  I  aUowed  it.  Our  people  are  warrior- 
born,  and  our  recruits  are  drilled  in  a  trice.  The  nobles, 
young  and  old,  have  all  served,  and  when  the  occasion 
called  for  it  not  one  said  no  to  anythmg;  all  have  rushed 
to  the  defence  of  State  and  Country;  and  no  effort  was 
needed  to  make  them  do  so. 


V. 

1789-1790. 
TUKKISH  WAR  CONTINUED:  SIEGE   OF  BELGRADE. 

After  leaving  Moldavia,  Bessarabia,  and  Tartary  at  the 
close  of  the  last  campaign  I  passed  a  very  happy  and 
tranquil  winter  in  Vienna,  without  letting  myself  think 
much  about  public  affairs.  No  one  talked  of  them  to  me, 
seeming  unaware  that  I  had  had  much  to  do  with  them 
for  the  last  two  years.  This  did  not  signify  to  me.  Now 
and  then  I  passed  from  ear  to  ear  the  necessity  of  rein- 
forcing the  Princes  of  Coburg  and  Hohenlohe  and  sending 
them  to  Bucharest,  taking  care  also  to  send  munitions  and 
supplies  into  Wallachia,  to  cut  off  the  head  of  Mauro-Jan, 
and  march  to  the  Danube.  For  a  year  I  had  vainly  urged 
(at  a  distance,  it  is  true,  because  at  a  distance  one  has 
more  boldness  in  telling  the  truth  to  sovereigns)  that  the 
Banat  and  Transylvania  could  never  be  properly  covered 
except  by  that  operation. 

I  arrived  at  Semlin  from  Vienna  about  the  middle  of  the 
month  of  May,  1789,  and  there  I  found  an  armistice  going 
on,  rather  badly  made,  and  not  too  well  kept,  and  very  ill- 
defined  ;  sufficiently  so  to  displease  the  Eussians,  to  whom 
it  seemed  that  we  wanted  to  send  them  the  Grand  Vizir, 
and  useless  to  us,  because  the  inundations  of  the  Danube 
and  other  rivers  presented  insurmountable  obstacles  between 
the  main  body  of  the  Turks  and  ourselves.  The  honest, 
virtuous,  and  enlightened  Mardchal  Haddick  commanded 
the  army. 


102  MEiMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

There  was  talk  of  laying  siege  to  Belgrade,  and  so  much 
was  said  about  it  that  I  concluded  it  would  never  be  done. 
It  vexed  me  to  see  provisions  getting  daily  into  the  city, 
which  was  almost  without  any,  while  we  were  prevented 
by  this  armistice  from  capturing  them,  which,  with  my 
Servian  guerillas,  would  have  been  so  easy.  [Belgrade  is 
on  the  Danube  at  its  junction  with  the  Save;  the  citadel 
stands  on  a  rock  100  feet  high  on  a  tongue  of  land  formed 
by  the  two  rivers,  and  was  one  of  the  strongest  fortresses 
in  Europe ;  Semlin  is  on  the  Save  within  sight  of  Belgrade.] 
I  groaned  over  that  armistice,  which  was  injurious  from  a 
miKtary  and  political  point  of  view,  and  ridiculous  from 
others.  But  I  profited  by  the  time  to  reconnoitre  the 
environs.  One  day  I  took  an  escort  of  hussars  and  Servian 
free-lances  and  reconnoitred  to  a  long  distance  beyond 
Belgrade  and  far  into  the  enemy's  country.  We  had 
plans  and  very  fine  drawings,  but  not  one  of  the  draughts- 
men had  ever  seen  the  place.  I  admired  the  passion  shown 
for  marching  in  squares  to  get  through  a  country  so  broken, 
unequal,  and  full  of  defiles,  in  order  to  besiege  Belgrade. 

But  all  this  was  so  uninteresting  that  I  kept  no  record 
of  what  happened  through  May,  June,  July,  and  August, 
which  latter  month  came  near  killing  me.  My  corps, 
which  had  a  force  of  30,000  men,  was  reduced  by  sickness  to 
15,000.  One  hundred  men  a  day  sent  to  the  hospitals  was 
thought  to  be  a  small  matter.  I,  who  did  not  know  what 
it  was  to  be  ill,  had  a  fever  for  seventeen  consecutive  days ; 
this  happened  unfortunately  at  a  time  when  Turks  on  the 
one  hand  and  our  generals  on  the  other  did  not  give  me  a 
moment's  peace.  The  first  persisted  in  marching  a  battery 
up  the  other  bank  of  the  Save  just  to  fire  a  few  shots 
and  then  retire.  The  latter  insisted  on  giving  me  advice, 
which  I  returned  by  advising  them  not  to  give  it,  and  to 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  103 

stop  their  fears  about  my  breaking  the  armistice  with  the 
two  cannon  I  had  posted  beside  my  bridge  over  the  Save. 
I  repaired  the  great  redoubt  of  Semlin,  strengthened  the 
ramparts,  and  added  some  other  works.  Sometimes  I  gave 
myself  an  alarm  durmg  the  night,  to  make  sure  that  every- 
body knew  his  place.^ 

During  the  latter  part  of  this  time  Mar^chal  Loudon, 
having  superseded  Mar^chal  Haddick,  who  was  recalled 
without  any  one  knowing  why,  was  eating  his  heart  out  at 
Weiskirch.  The  enemy  was  in  the  Banat.  Loudon  awaited 
the  final  orders  of  the  emperor  to  make  or  not  to  make  the 
siege  of  Belgrade.  He  was  furious  at  being  prevented  from 
going  to  Banjaluka  after  taking  Berbir  and  conquering  the 
whole  of  Bosnia,  and  he  saw  the  difficulties  of  the  locality, 
the  season,  and  the  continual  sickness  among  the  troops. 
He  assembled  all  his  principal  generals  for  a  council  of 
war.  On  that  day  I  had  such  a  violent  attack  of  fever  that 
it  was  impossible  for  me  to  be  present,  but  I  wrote  my 
opinion,  and  perhaps  the  heat  of  my  paroxysm  was  com- 
municated to  my  reasons  against  the  siege.  Mar^chal  Lou- 
don approved  of  them  ;  but  the  emperor  apparently  did  not, 
for  soon  afterwards  the  siege  was  resolved  upon.  "  Cost  what 
it  may,"  he  wrote,  "  I  wish  you  to  take  Belgrade." 

I  wished  it  too,  but  I  wanted  Servia  cleaned  out  pre- 
viously, to  get  Abdy  Pacha  off  our  hands  and  so  be  able  to 
take  Belgrade  in  three  days.  I  wrote,  as  I  say,  this  opinion 
of  mine  to  be  read  at  the  council  of  war  at  Weiskirch,  and 
then  sent  to  his  Majesty,  who  was  perhaps  not  pleased  with 

1  The  prince  enters  into  close  details  of  all  his  dispositions  throughout 
this  campaign  and  his  reasons  for  them.  They  are  too  minute  and  pro- 
fessional for  these  pages,  and  perhaps  too  antiquated  for  modern  warfare ; 
but  the  Duke  of  Wellington  read  and  studied  these  and  the  prince's  other 
military  works  with  interest.  They  are  contained  in  vols,  i.,  vii.,  xiv, 
xvii.,  xix.,  xxiv.  of  his  Works.  — Tr. 


104  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

it.  But  the  Truth  was  a  rival  in  my  heart  to  the  sovereign 
I  loved,  and  carried  the  day  on  all  occasions  when  it  con- 
cerned the  honour  of  our  arms;  as  for  my  hfe,  that  was 
wholly  at  his  service.  I  saw  the  obstacles  so  plainly,  and  so 
did  Mar^chal  Loudon,  —  though  the  event  proved  against 
our  expectation,  —  that  it  was  quite  impossible  for  me  not  to 
endeavour  to  make  others  see  them. 

Fever,  Turks,  and  generals  continued  to  torment  me  so 
that  I  do  not  know  how  in  the  intervals  between  dehrium 
and  chills  that  lasted  five  hours,  I  managed  to  give  and 
dictate  orders.  In  the  midst  of  it  all  the  enemy  attacked 
and  burned  two  of  my  vessels.  I  ordered  up  the  fleet  to 
where  their  shot  could  reach  the  town,  and  the  18-pound 
guns  of  my  repaired  redoubt  created  great  alarm  there  and 
did  some  damage.  This  brought  the  generals  down  upon 
me.  Already  I  had  had  representations  that  I  was  breaking, 
as  they  called  it,  the  armistice.  "  But  my  vessels,  gentle- 
men," I  replied ;  "  what  do  you  say  to  those  ? "  "  They 
were  attacked  and  burned  in  spite  of  Osman  Pacha,"  said  the 
general  who  was  particularly  charged  to  remonstrate. 

Three  days  later  the  town  of  Belgrade  fired  a  broadside 
at  the  town  of  Semlin ;  it  did  look,  I  must  acknowledge, 
a  little  like  reprisals.  My  shot  had  grazed,  I  believe,  the 
house  of  the  pacha ;  his  flew  past  my  windows  and  went 
further.  Wliat  looked  like  open  war  was  the  insulting 
advance  of  two  Turkish  sloops  close  up  to  mine  on  the  left 
arm  of  the  Danube.  The  latter  fired,  as  it  had  orders  to  do ; 
on  which  the  Turks  advanced  and  brought  up  seven  other 
vessels.  My  son  Charles  saw  it  all  from  my  window  and 
rushed,  with  the  excellent,  brave,  intelligent  Baron  de  Bolza, 
my  adjutant-general,  and  Langendonck,  one  of  my  aides- 
de-camp  who  always  thrust  himself  wherever  there  were 
cannon-balls  or  musketry.  They  jumped  into  a  boat  and  I 
was  sure  then  that  the  fight  would  be  hot. 


MEMOIR  OF  TltE   PllINCE  DE  EIGNE.  105 

I  was  not  exactly  like  Louis  XIV.,  who,  says  Boileau, 
complained  that  his  grandeur  tied  him  to  the  shore.  A 
terrible  attack  of  fever  held  me  at  my  window ;  from  which, 
nevertheless,  I  commanded  the  naval  battle  by  shouting 
with  all  my  might.  Alia  larga  !  and  Avanti  !  to  the  frigate 
"  Maria  Theresa  "  and  my  other  vessels.  As  they  were  not 
able  to  stir,  I  only  cracked  my  throat  and  greatly  increased 
my  fever.  But  what  increased  it  still  more  was  the  fear 
that  fire  or  water  would  play  some  bad  trick  on  Charles, 
who  is  by  way  of  being  too  much  of  an  amateur.  But 
he  got  off  happily  and  bravely,  as  usual.  The  fight  was 
lively.  We  fired  more  than  six  hundred  cannon-balls. 
I  never  knew  the  enemy's  loss;  but  we  sank  the  two 
sloops  that  first  advanced;  I  saw  them  early  in  the  fight 
retiring. 

This  was  a  good  time  to  make  the  pacha  explain  himself ; 
but  I  don't  like  explanations  —  either  with  women  or  the 
enemy.  If  I  had  complained  of  these  insults,  the  pacha 
might  have  sent  me  back  a  dozen  decapitated  heads,  and  we 
should  have  lost  the  right  to  cross  the  Save  with  an  army 
without  giving  ten  days'  notice.  The  singular  part  of  it  was 
that  all  this  time  my  stupid  old  Osman  Pacha  kept  writing 
to  me  most  tenderly  as  to  certain  affairs  we  had  together 
about  prisoners  and  armistice.  I  rephed  and  always  signed 
myself, "  Your  good  neighbour  and  friend."  After  this  affair 
I  continued  to  write  to  him  and  he  to  me.  I  still  have  all 
his  letters,  but  very  few  copies  of  my  own. 

To  the  Comte  de  Scgur. 

In  mt  Headquarters  at  Semlin,  June,  1789. 
I  might  have  written  to  you  last  winter  about  things  you 
did  not  know,  or  since  then  about  things  that  you  do  know ; 
but  I   never  write   with  pleasure   unless  I  can  receive  an 


106  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

answer  within  a  few  hours.  In  Paris  I  never  wrote  to  the 
other  side  of  the  bridges ;  and  this  was  why,  floating  with 
you  on  the  Borysthenes  and  separated  only  by  a  silken 
partition  in  the  splendid  galley  of  that  triumphant  and 
magical  journey,  I  wrote  and  received  a  morning  greeting  in 
a  moment. 

A  species  of  armistice,  or  I  might  say  social  agreement, 
leaves  me  free  to  give  the  Turks  (in  a  superb  tent  as  Turkish 
as  they)  delightful  concerts  on  my  bank  of  the  river.  All 
the  garrison  of  Belgrade  come  out  to  listen  to  them  on  the 
opposite  shore.  Like  the  King  of  Spain  who  for  forty  years 
had  a  certain  air  of  Farinelli's  sung  to  him  daily,  I  make 
them  play  to  me  every  night  0  cosa  rara!  —  which  thus 
ceases,  as  you  perceive,  to  be  a  rare  thing.  Beautiful  Jewesses, 
Armenians,  Illyrians,  and  Servians  are  present. 

When  the  Turks  pass  my  frontiers  I  punish  them.  Osman 
Pacha  thanks  me,  and  says  he  can't  make  them  obey  him. 
As  I  like  better  to  tease  him  than  to  be  fooled  by  excuses,  I 
fired  a  little  feu  de  joie  the  other  day  in  commemoration  of 
one  of  our  small  victories  in  Moldavia,  but  I  loaded  the  guns 
with  ball  to  avenge  a  sentinel  of  mine  whose  head  they  had 
cut  off.  The  thing  succeeded.  Eight  inquisitive  persons 
were  killed  at  the  foot  of  the  redoubt.  The  pacha  seemed 
to  think  it  was  quite  natural.  I  hoped  he  would  have'  been 
angry.  I  myself  never  complain  when  a  few  shots  are  fired 
at  me  in  play  as  I  take  my  walks.  But  a  lieutenant-colonel 
of  one  of  my  advanced  posts  on  the  Pantschowa  side,  disap- 
proved of  their  treating  one  of  his  officers  in  that  way  and 
complained  to  Aga  Mustapha,  who  answered  as  follows :  — 

"I  salute  you,  neighbour  Terschitz.  You  say  there  is  an 
armistice.  I  know  nothing  about  that.  You  talk  to  me  of 
the  Pacha  of  Belgrade.  I  am  not  dependent  upon  him.  You 
offer  me  help  in  case  I  need  it.    Learn  that  the  Sublime  Porte 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  107 

does  not  allow  me  to  need  anything.  All  I  want  is  to  drink 
your  blood.  You  tell  me  that  I  can  trust  you.  Know  that  in 
these  days  no  one  should  trust  any  one.  I  salute  you,  neigh- 
bour Terschitz." 

Here  is  the  answer  I  sent  him  in  neighbour  Terschitz's 
name,  — 

"I  salute  you,  neighbour  Mustapha.  Your  letter  is  very 
Turkish.  I  am  glad,  for  I  was  thinking  there  were  no  Turks. 
You  say  you  want  to  drink  my  blood.  I  don't  care  about 
drinking  yours.  What  is  the  blood  of  an  aga  ?  Do  what  you 
like,  and  come  when  you  can.  I  have  given  my  people  orders 
to  take  you  prisoner  at  the  first  opportunity.  I  should  like 
to  see  you.     Good-bye  to  you,  Aga  Mustapha." 

I  did  a  rather  giddy  thing  the  other  day.  I  had  to  write 
to  Osman  Pacha  about  a  courier  from  M.  de  Choiseul  who 
occasionally  sends  me  one.  I  carried  the  letter  myself ;  that 
is  to  say,  I  went,  accompanied  by  my  interpreter,  in  a  little 
boat  with  a  white  flag  (sign  of  wanting  a  parley)  to  the  foot 
of  the  citadel,  ostensibly  to  deliver  the  letter,  but  really  to 
reconnoitre  the  side  on  which  the  attack  will  be  made,  as  I 
hope,  a  month  or  two  from  now.  I  had  plenty  of  time  to 
examine  everything  before  a  boat  with  a  dozen  men,  whose 
faces  were  either  splendid  or  villauous  (for  there  is  no 
medium  among  the  Turks),  came  out  to  look  at  us  and  take 
my  letter,  which  I  presented  as  being  sent  through  me  by 
myself.  I  was  very  cajoling  and  used  all  the  thirty  Turkish 
words  that  I  know.  Two  or  three  of  their  moustaches 
smiled ;  but  the  others  frightened  me  horribly  by  examining 
me.  I  remembered  that  they  might  have  seen  me  firing  at 
eagles  and  wild-duck  under  their  noses  on  the  Save.  I  was 
wearing  a  huge  white  cloak  and  a  shabby  slouched  hat.  I 
heard  them  ask  my  interpreter  who  I  was.  He  replied  that 
I  was  the  secretary  of  the  Seraskier  of  Semlin  for  French 


108  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

correspondence.  The  most  villanous-looking  of  the  Turks, 
with  an  infernal  face,  snatched  my  letter  from  me  abruptly, 
saying  he  would  take  it  to  the  pacha.  I  was  quits  for  a  few 
moments'  uneasiness,  but  I  got  away  by  force  of  oars  as  fast 
as  I  could. 

Adieu,  my  dear  S^gur ;  I  leave  you  to  see  ten  fine  battalions 
of  reinforcements  just  sent  to  me  from  Austria.  May  I  soon 
make  use  of  them !  I  wish  they  would  let  me  cross  the  Save 
to  Sabacz,  just  to  see  if  there  is  really  such  a  being  as  Abdy 
Pacha,  of  whose  coming  I  am  constantly  warned ;  likewise  of 
that  of  the  Pacha  of  Trawnick  and  the  famous  Mahmoud  of 
Scutari.  I  should  like  to  sweep  the  plain  up  to  the  very 
cannon  of  Nissa.  If  it  were  not  for  the  uneasiness  this  Abdy 
Pacha  gives  us,  things  would  go  on  much  better. 

I  embrace  you  with  all  my  heart. 

After  the  last  letter  of  the  emperor,  Mardchal  Loudon 
made  all  arrangements  to  cross  the  Save  on  the  15th  of  Sep- 
tember. I  felt  that  I  must  take  quinine  in  order  to  take 
Belgrade.  I  took  it ;  for  I  was  nearly  at  my  last  gasp,  —  and 
grew  worse.  They  ordered  me  change  of  air  and  I  started 
September  1  for  Kergedeck,  a  Greek  monastery  in  the  moun- 
tains near  Carlowitz.  There  I  should  have  recovered  entirely, 
but  knowing  the  marshal's  promptitude  of  mind  and  action 
I  grew  uneasy,  and  left  at  the  end  of  eight  days  to  rejoin  the 
army,  with  a  weakness  of  the  legs  and  a  stiffness  in  the 
knees  which  never  left  me  as  long  as  I  remained  in  that 
cursfed  region. 

I  had  guessed  right ;  instead  of  crossing  on  the  15th,  the 
marshal  had  changed  to  the  14th,  and  then  he  suddenly 
came  down  to  the  12th  because  the  report  of  a  scout  made 
him  believe  that  Abdy  Pacha  was  on  the  way  with  thirty 
thousand  men.     True  or  not,  it  was  what  he  might  be  (and 


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MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  109 

it  is  very  surprisiQg  that  he  never  came).  The  marshal, 
with  that  quickness  of  mind  I  mentioned  above,  which 
sometimes  led  him  to  think  aloud,  said  to  those  about  him, 
what  any  other  man  would  have  said  to  himself :  "  Shall  I, 
or  shall  I  not  cross  the  Save  ? " 

Some  generals  present  gave  it  as  their  opinion  —  at  this 
moment  when  it  was  impossible  to  hold  back,  all  was  too 
far  advanced,  everything  had  to  be  chanced  and  all  efforts 
doubled  —  some  generals,  I  say,  answered  not  to  cross. 
Mack,  who  is  not  a  general  but  deserves  to  be,  and  Colonel 
Bourgeois,  gave  it  as  their  opinion  that  we  ought  to  cross. 
This  recalled  to  the  marshal's  mind  the  emperor's  last  words, 
and  he  said :  "  Very  well,  let  us  cross,"  in  his  simple  way,  as 
if  he  had  not  already  formed  his  decision.  Ten  minutes 
later  he  added,  with  llame  in  his  eyes :  "  Messieurs,  the  first 
step  is  now  to  be  made.  I  warn  you,  it  is  conquer  or  die." 
Then,  pointing  to  the  ground  before  Belgrade,  "  There,"  he 
said,  "  it  is  there,  in  that  corner,  that  we  will  settle  the  fate 
of  the  monarchy." 

It  is  surprishig  that  the  emperor  persisted  in  doing,  in  the 
month  of  October,  what  he  would  not  do  in  June,  when  the 
faU  of  Belgrade  would  have  entailed  that  of  Orsowa,  Widdin, 
and  Nissa.  Policy,  apparently,  had  something  to  do  with  it ; 
and  when  one  sees  such  precious  moments  in  war  sacrificed 
to  politics  it  puts  one  out  of  temper. 

With  two  fine  marches  the  army  was  across  the  Save,  and 
the  marshal  made  his  famous  attack  on  the  two  villages 
called  the  Faubourgs.  I  protected  him  with  six  hundred 
24-pound  shot.  It  was  then  that  the  Comte  de  Browne,  at 
the  head  of  four  columns,  which  he  cleverly  divided,  got  pos- 
session of  the  Ratzenstadt,  and  displayed  such  valour,  cool- 
ness, and  talent  that  after  the  siege  M.  de  Loudon,  who  had 

seen  all  three  qualities  in  him,  said  to  me :  "  There  's  a  man 
Ver.  7  Mem.  8 


110  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

we  must  push,  to  put  him  soon  at  the  head  of  armies."  Dur- 
ing the  engagement  the  marshal  kept  writing  to  me  to  fire 
fast,  and  Colleredo  to  fire  slow,  and  Pellegrini  to  fire  straight. 
I  obeyed  the  first,  for  it  was  more  in  my  line  ;  besides,  it 
electrified  me,  and  I  electrified  others. 

The  weakness  of  my  legs  and  the  stiffness  of  my  knees 
made  me  more  of  a  general  than  a  soldier  while  the  in- 
trenching was  going  on ;  but  perhaps  this  did  more  for  our 
success,  because  my  head  worked  better.  That  is,  if  I  had 
been  in  health  I  might  never  have  left  the  trenches ;  as  it 
was,  I  was  there  all  day.  I  went  to  see  every  work  as  soon 
as  finished,  and  decide  on  others  and  place  them.  One  day, 
half  carried  by  two  subalterns,  and  dragging  myself  along,  I 
helped  to  lay  out  the  redoubt  of  the  Donawitz,  after  which 
I  passed  a  dreadful  night  in  the  trenches.  I  did  not  sleep, 
day  or  night,  and  there  was  not  a  quarter  of  an  hour  that 
M.  de  Bolza  was  not  up  and  about  to  second  or  forestall  my 
intentions.  Poor  Dettinger  was  ill,  and  ill  of  being  ill  and 
unable  to  follow  me  everywhere  as  at  Oczakow ;  but  he  did 
me  many  services  whenever  his  strength  allowed.  As  for 
Langendonck,  he  took  it  as  his  business  to  rush  through 
balls  and  bombs  to  be  useful  to  me  ;  and  he  passed  enough 
nights  in  the  trenches  to  kill  him,  as  the  enemy  did  not 
choose  to  do  so. 

I  was  very  much  pleased  with  the  valour  of  the  engineer 
and  the  artillery  officers,  both ;  but  it  was  the  devil  and  all 
to  make  arrangements  with  them  because  of  their  profes- 
sional jealousies  and  the  division  of  authority.  Any  one 
who  knows  Colonel  dArnal  will  not  be  surprised  at  this ;  he 
was  full  of  the  most  distinguished  talents,  but  also  of  ancient 
prejudices;  brave  and  intelligent  but  rather  impracticable, 
deaf,  and  a  little  blind.  Colonel  Funk  kept  everything  going, 
with  unequalled  intrepidity  and  valour.     The  first  quality 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE.  HI 

led  him  to  face  anything,  and  led  others,  by  his  vigorous 
example,  to  do  likewise,  under  the  hottest  fire,  and  some- 
times the  continufil  fire,  of  the  enemy ;  the  other  made  him 
spend  every  night  through  three  whole  weeks  in  the  works, 
rendering  me  the  utmost  service,  for  he  often  did  what  the 
infantry  should  have  done. 

The  essential  point  of  our  position  was  the  Sauspitz.  I 
placed  a  detachment  in  the  underbrush  on  lines  I  marked 
out  myself,  beginning  at  a  distance  of  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  from  the  intrenchments,  and  I  made  a  road,  so 
that  in  case  the  Turks  attempted  to  occupy  the  Sauspitz,  two 
battalions  could  be  brought  vip  instantly.  Collecting  all  my 
strength  1  went  several  times  alone,  sometimes  with  patrols 
of  sharpshooters,  through  the  underbrush  of  the  Sauspitz,  to 
reconnoitre  the  most  difficult  ground  of  all,  and  the  most 
necessary  to  study  in  order  to  station  troops  and  protect  our- 
selves from  attacks  on  that  side ;  for  the  enemy  would 
surely,  except  for  these  precautions,  have  got  a  footing 
there. 

My  greatest  merit  in  my  own  eyes  is  for  having  secured, 
little  by  little,  this  piece  of  ground  by  cautious  manoeuvring ; 
had  I  tried  to  do  so  by  force,  I  should  only  have  become 
involved  in  ridiculous  skirmishing,  like  that  of  the  previous 
year;  I  should  have  wasted  my  time  instead  of  completing 
my  works,  which  would,  moreover,  diave  been  impossible  if 
the  enemy  could  have  hidden  a  thousand  men  in  the  holes 
and  coverts  of  that  underbrush. 

When  it  became  a  question  of  establishmg  the  redoubt  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Donawitz,  I  assembled  my  generals  and 
the  officers  of  the  Engineer  and  Artillery  Corps,  the  majors 
of  the  trenches,  and  the  commissaries,  in  order  to  regulate 
the  number  of  workmen,  the  affairs  of  the  laboratory,  the 
depots,  the  tools,  the  army-waggons,  etc.     There  are  a  thou- 


112  MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

saud  things  needed  for  a  siege,  of  which  no  one  could  form 
an  idea  unless  he  had  commanded  at  one,  all  of  which 
required  the  most  assiduous  attention.  I  did  nothing  for 
three  weeks  but  attend  to  these  matters ;  besides  which, 
I  had  to  purvey  for  the  marshal's  whole  army.  I  was  told 
that  I  should  find  everything  had  been  prepared  for  the 
siege  during  the  previous  year.  As  for  that,  the  fascines 
had  been  burned,  the  rats  had  eaten  the  bags  that  held  the 
earth,  the  gabions  had  not  been  tilled ;  there  was  no  supply 
of  munitions  or  of  any  of  the  things  most  necessary,  but 
much  thwarting  from  the  country  itself  and  from  the 
Departments  of  Engineering  and  Artillery,  and  endless 
requisitions  and  writings.  Five  hundred  ducats  which  I 
paid  among  the  people  of  the  neighbourhood,  to  buy,  per- 
suade, and  reward,  did  something.  There  were  no  arrange- 
ments for  the  wounded.  Eusty  cannon-balls  exploded  when 
they  left  the  guns,  and  killed  my  own  men,  —  in  short,  a 
hundred  thousand  vexations  which  would  have  been  fatal 
hindrances  to  any  one  less  obstinate  than  I. 

The  marshal  saw  plainly  that  he  had  no  great  resources 
in  his  army  of  any  kind ;  and  he  knew  from  the  first  that 
a  tremendous  fire  from  my  side,  and  the  quickest  possible, 
could  alone  ensure  success,  because  the  batteries  of  his 
attack  could  only  touch  the  parapet  h.  comes  of  the  enemy's 
works  and,  slightly,  the  embrasures,  those  works  projecting 
too  little  to  be  battered  from  anywhere  except  the  crest  of 
the  covered  way.  But  it  was  certain  that  all  our  bombshells 
from  the  Sauspitz  were  crushing  men  and  houses ;  not  a 
shot  missed. 

I  had  ordered  that  the  battalions  on  the  left  and  two 
on  the  right  should  fire  at  different  angles.  I  gave  the 
direction  of  the  powder  magazines  to  my  four  100-pound 
mortars ;  for  I  believed  that,  even  if  they  did  not  succeed 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE.  113 

in  crushing  in  the  roofs,  the}^  might  blow  up  the  buildings 
by  falling  on  some  thread  of  powder  scattered  by  careless 
hands. 

I  gave  orders  to  the  artillery  to  dismount  the  guns  that 
were  firing  upon  us.  "  That  is  no  matter,"  said  d'Arnal, 
"  let  us  help  the  others."  "  No,"  I  said,  "  let  us  help  our- 
selves first ;  silence  those  guns."  And  silenced  they  were, 
so  thoroughly  that  we  could  go  the  whole  length  of  the 
intrenchment  and  drag  a  powder-waggon  in  broad  daylight. 
In  fact,  what  could  resist  our  infernal  torrent  of  fire  ?  Here 
is  the  number  of  the  balls  and  bombshells  that  I  discharged 
from  the  Sauspitz :  5662  balls,  and  6083  bombshells. 

It  was  decidedly  that  which  took  Belgrade ;  for  the  bat- 
teries of  the  three  marshals  could  only  touch,  as  I  have  said, 
the  crest  of  the  parapet  and  the  embrasures.  It  only  re- 
mained to  surmount  the  covered  way,  uncover  the  base  of 
the  wall,  and  batter  a  breach.  This  Mardchal  Loudon  was 
about  to  do  when  the  fort  surrendered ;  and  it  was  from  his 
recognition  of  all  this  that  he  deigned  to  attribute  in  a  great 
degree  to  my  zeal  and  the  manner  in  which  I  had  pressed 
the  work  the  taking  of  the  place. 

I  was  all  on  fire  myself  for  that  Being,  who  was  more  of 
a  demigod  in  war  than  a  man.  Urged  by  him  I  urged  on 
others.  Bolza  watched  and  flew ;  Funk  fired ;  MaiUard 
rushed  forward.  I  thanked,  I  begged,  I  ordered,  I  threat- 
ened ;  all  went  well ;  and  all  was  done  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye.     Here  is  the  charming  note  the  marshal  wrote  me : 

Before  Belgrade,  October  8,  1789. 
I  give  myself   the  honour  of   informing  your  Highness 
that  the  garrison  of  Belgrade  surrenders  on  condition  of  a 
free   passage  out,  that  this  capitulation  is  settled,  and   that 
our  troops  will  this  day  occupy  the  enemy's  works. 


114  MEMOIR   OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

Owing  a  great  part  of  this  fortunate  result  to  the  effica- 
cious manner,  so  conformed  to  our  purpose,  with  which 
your  Highness  employed  your  energies,  which  have  largely 
contributed  to  that  result  by  the  attack  made  on  the  side 
of  your  Command,  I  shall  lay  before  the  eyes  of  his  Majesty 
the  very  ample  praises  that  your  Highness  so  well  deserves. 

Loudon. 

He  did  as  he  said ;  and  it  is  to  him  I  owe  the  honour  of 
being  a  commander  of  the  military  Order  of  Maria  Theresa. 
The  star  which  I  received  eight  days  later,  that  favour  due 
above  all  to  Mar^chal  Loudon,  is  the  thing  that  has  given 
me  the  greatest  pleasure  in  all  my  life. 

To  the   Comte  de  Segiir. 

Belgrade,  October  18,  1789. 

Here  we  are,  in  tliis  rampart  of  the  Orient,  of  which  we 
have  opened  the  gates,  not  with  the  rosy  fingers  of  Aurora, 
but  with  the  red  hand  of  fire.  The  boldness  and  prompti- 
tude of  the  passage  of  the  Save,  the  rapidity  of  the  march 
and  of  the  entrance  to  the  old  lines  of  Prince  Eugfene,  the 
audacity  of  the  reconnaissance,  made  to  the  stockade  itself, 
all  that  was  the  work  of  fifteen  days  worthy  indeed  of  the 
finest  days  of  IMar^chal  Loudon.  He  fired  our  heads,  we 
fired  off  the  Turks'  heads,  and  I  dismounted  their  guns.  He 
attacked  Belgrade  on  the  right  hank  of  the  Save,  and  I  on 
the  left  bank,  wliere  I  was  the  eagle  of  the  Jupiter  whose 
thunderbolt  I  hurled. 

Wliat  a  source  of  reflections  !  Hardly  had  the  word  "  capit- 
ulation "  been  uttere  1  before  ten  thousand  of  the  conquered 
mingled  with  as  many  conquerors.  Ferocity  gave  place  to 
gentleness,  anger  to  pity,  the  wiles  of  war  to  sincerity  and 
good  faith.     They  all  took  coffee  together,  they  sold,  they 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  nilNCE  DE  LIGNE.  115 

boiiglit.  The  Turk,  honest  iu  his  marts,  fixes  a  price  and 
dehvers  his  goods  hidden  in  the  casemates,  goes  about  his 
affairs,  and  receives  his  money  without  eagerness  if  he  hap- 
pens to  meet  his  purchaser.  Philosophers,  without  being 
aware  of  it,  the  rich  proprietors  are  calmly  smoking  on  the 
ruins  of  their  houses  and  their  fortunes.  Osman  Pacha, 
the  silly  old  governor  of  Belgrade,  smokes  in  the  midst  of 
his  Court,  ranged  ceremoniously  round  him,  as  if  he  still 
commanded  the  place  and  were  not  expecting  a  capidgy- 
bachi  from  Sultan  Selim  demanding  his  head  —  which  he 
does  not  possess,  for  he  lost  it  at  the  sound  of  the  first  gun. 
The  beauty  and  variety  of  the  rich  and  striking  colours  of 
the  janissaries,  the  caps  of  our  own  grenadiers,  the  turbans 
of  the  spahis,  who  are  not  at  all  cast  down  though  beaten, 
their  splendid  weapons,  their  horses,  proud  as  themselves, 
their  firm  air,  never  abased  in  spite  of  misfortune,  the  shores 
of  the  Danube  and  the  Save  lined  with  these  picturesque 
figures,  all  these  things  refresh  the  eye  and  delight  the  soul. 
But  it  was  rather  sad  to  see  them  carrying  away  the  bodies 
of  men,  horses,  sheep,  and  oxen  which  they  could  not  bury 
during  the  siege.  One  smelt,  all  at  the  same  moment,  death, 
burning,  and  attar  of  rose  —  for  it  is  extraordinary  how  they 
mingle  sensuous  tastes  with  barbarism. 

Who  wants  to  know  what  the  Turks  are  ?  Here  it  is  ; 
very  different  from  the  idea  that  most  people  have  of  them. 
They  are  a  people  of  antitheses :  brave  and  cowardly,  active 
and  lazy,  libertine  and  devout,  sensual  and  hard,  delicate 
and  coarse,  dirty  and  clean ;  keeping  in  the  same  room  roses 
and  dead  cats.  If  I  speak  of  the  great  men  of  the  Court, 
army,  and  provinces  I  shall  add :  haughty  and  base,  distrust- 
ful, ungrateful,  proud  and  cringing,  generous  and  thieving. 
Of  all  these  qualities,  good  and  bad,  the  good  preponderate 
in  tlie  bulk  of  the  nation  ;   they  depend .  on  circumstances, 


116  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

and  are  always  covered  by  a  crust  of  ignorance  and  stolidity 
which  prevents  these  poor  people  from  becoming  unhappy. 
It  is  quite  clear  that,  if  they  were  not  imder  the  yoke  of 
masters  who  strangle  them  to  get  their  sons  and  daughters 
or  their  wealth,  they  would  not  be  so  famiharized  with 
customs  which  give  them  a  barbarous  character. 

They  scarcely  smile;  they  answer  with  their  heads,  or 
eyes,  or  hands  and  arms ;  they  never  move  without  dignity, 
but  they  seldom  speak.  There  is  nothing  common  or  vulgar 
about  them,  either  in  what  they  say  or  in  their  manners. 
The  little  servant  of  a  janissary,  though  his  feet  and  legs 
are  bare  and  he  has  no  shirt,  is  jaunty  in  his  way,  and  has  a 
more  distinguished  air  than  the  young  seigneurs  of  the 
European  Courts  ;  the  poorest  of  the  Turkisli  soldiers  have 
nothing  to  clothe  them,  but  their  damascened  weapons  are 
dazzling  in  the  sunhght.  I  have  seen  them  refuse  two 
hundred  piastres,  fearing  less  to  die  of  hunger  than  of 
shame. 

The  Turks  are  capable  of  gratitude  and  respond  to  good 
treatment ;  in  all  the  circumstances  of  their  lives,  in  war  as 
elsewhere,  they  keep  their  word ;  all  the  more,  as  one  of 
them  once  said  to  me,  because  they  do  not  know  how  to 
write. 

The  Turks  have  some  resemblance  with  the  Greeks,  but 
far  more  with  the  Eomans.  They  have  the  tastes  of  the 
one  and  the  habits  of  the  other.  Their  works  are  charming, 
full  of  good  taste,  and  suggestive  of  ideas ;  those  ideas, 
when  they  have  them,  are  refined  and  delicate.  They  show 
a  polished  mind  in  the  little  that  they  say  or  write.  They 
are  grave  like  the  Eomans,  and  will  not  take  the  trouble  to 
either  laugh  or  dance ;  Ibrahim-Nazir,  whom  we  have  driven 
from  Moldavia,  had  five  or  six  very  pretty  slaves,  superbly 
dressed,   who   surrounded  liim  on   horseback.     The   Turks 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   TRINCE   DE   LIGNE.  117 

explained  to  me  that  they  liked  beauty,  and  it  was  very 
agreeable  to  them  to  be  waked  in  the  morning  by  handsome 
figures  bringing  them  their  coffee,  their  pipe,  their  sherbet, 
their  aloe  wood  to  burn,  their  amber  perfume,  and  their  attar 
of  rose.  They  scorn  our  ways  of  having  a  common  sweeper 
or  a  confidential  old  valet  to  make  our  fire  and  open  our 
curtains.  They  are  always  lying  down,  like  the  Komans, 
who,  I  doubt  not,  had  divans  like  the  Turks,  on  which  they 
ate  and  passed  their  days.  The  tunics  and  slippers  of  both 
nations  prove  that  neither  liked  walking. 

There  is  no  fury  and  anger  like  that  of  the  cold  and 
phlegmatic  natures.  The  Turks,  like  the  Eomans,  especially 
the  Turks  of  the  present  day,  make  vengeance  a  business ; 
in  other  respects  they  are  gentle.  They  never  argue  and 
never  quarrel.  The  Romans,  if  popular  government  did  not 
always  bring  with  it  party  spirit,  intrigue,  jealousy,  and  their 
accompanying  crimes,  would  have  been  very  worthy  people ; 
and  if  the  opposite  extreme,  the  despotism  of  a  sultan  and 
of  two  or  three  of  the  great  officials,  did  not  terrify  them  in- 
cessantly the  Turks  would  also  be  among  the  best  people  in 
the  world. 

Ignorant  from  laziness  and  from  policy,  superstitious  by 
habit  and  calculation,  they  are  guided  by  natural  and  lucky 
instinct.  What  would  the  peoples  of  Europe  be  if  their 
prime  ministers  were  soap-dealers,  their  high-admiral  a 
market-gardener,  and  a  lacquey  the  commander-in-chief  of 
their  armies  ?  Wliere  else  will  you  find  men  equally  fit  to 
fight  on  foot,  on  horseback,  or  on  the  water,  clever  in  all  they 
undertake,  and  individually  intrepid  ?  Stations  and  condi- 
tions being  all  mixed  up,  no  one  being  classed,  it  follows  that 
each  man  has  a  right  to  everything,  and  awaits  the  place  to 
which  his  destiny  allots  him. 

Observers,  travellers,  spectators,  instead  of  making  trivial 


118  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

reflections  about  the  nations  of  Europe,  who  are  all  pretty 
niucli  alike,  should  meditate  on  those  which  derive  from  Asia 
if  they  want  to  find  something  new,  fine,  grand,  noble,  and 
very  often  reasonable. 

The  marshal  has  asked  on  my  behalf  for  the  cross  of  com- 
mander of  the  mihtary  Order  of  Maria  Theresa;  and  the 
emperor  has  already  sent  it  to  me.  They  say  they  are  satis- 
fied with  my  promptitude,  and  especially  with  the  effects  of 
my  last  bombardment,  which  decided  the  Turks  to  capitulate. 
Nothing  was  wanting  to  my  happiness  except  the  arrival  of 
Abdy  Pacha  to  relieve  the  place.  It  would  have  been  a  keen 
pleasure  to  me  to  cross  the  Save,  assist  in  beating  the  pacha, 
and  then  return  to  continue  my  attack. 

I  would  have  written  to  you  during  the  siege  but  I  was 
afraid  my  letter  might  become  posthumous,  and  I  did  not 
wish  to  tell  you  what  was  in  my  head  before  I  knew  whether 
the  enemy  would  leave  it  on  my  shoulders.  Adieu,  friend  of 
my  heart. 

I  remained  for  some  little  time  at  Belgrade,  and  then  was 
on  the  point  of  starting  for  Vienna,  when  certain  reasons, 
which  I  was  too  careless  to  fathom,  induced  the  Emperor 
Joseph  II.  to  send  me  orders  to  choose  my  winter  quarters 
at  either  Effleck,  Belgrade,  or  Peterwaradin. 

To  MarecTial  de  Lacy. 

Bklgrade,  December,  1789. 
It  is  not  to  enhance  my  value,  my  dear  marshal,  for  to  do 
my  duty  costs  me  nothing,  that  I  wish  to  tell  you  that  I  am 
battered  with  proposals  to  put  myself  at  the  head  of  the 
Flemings.  [The  Austrian  Low  Countries,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  French  Eevolution,  were  then  in  a  state 
of  revolt   and   so   continued   until  December,  1790,   when 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   PRINCE   1)E   LIGNE.  119 

the  Austrian  army  re-occupied  Brussels  and  subdued  tlie 
insurgents.] 

I  have  answered  only  once,  to  say  that  I  sliall  not  answer 
at  all.  I  endeavoured  to  make  them  see  the  folly  and  the 
impotence  of  their  revolt  (thanks  to  their  poor  heads) ;  for 
they  could  perfectly  well  have  prevented  the  passage  of  the 
Sambre  on  one  side,  and  that  of  the  Dyle  on  the  other  by 
means  of  its  rocky  banks,  which  are  on  their  side.  After 
having  proved  to  tliem  that  they  did  not  know  how  to  read 
aright  the  manifesto  of  the  worthy  archduke,  I  added  that 
I  thanked  them  for  the  provinces  they  offered  me,  but  that  I 
never  revolted  in  winter. 

I  did  not  even  honour  Van  der  Noot  with  that  poor  joke, 
and  I  never  answered  his  summons  to  go  and  defend  our 
privileges,  nor  his  threats  of  what  would  happen  to  me  if  I 
did  not  go  instantly. 

I  beg  your  Excellency  not  to  say  a  word  of  all  this  to  the 
emperor,  whom  I  pity  for  having,  perhaps,  thought  that  I  was 
taking  some  part  in  the  Belgian  revolt ;  —  for  that,  I  imagine, 
is  the  reason  why  I  am  kept  here  in  a  species  of  exile.  As 
he  easily  recovers  from  any  wrong  impression  that  he  takes, 
I  am  sure  that  he  will  soon  come  out  of  this  idea  and  retract 
his  order  that  I  am  to  choose  my  winter  quarters  at  Belgrade, 
Effleck,  or  Peterwaradin. 

If  I  have  to  remain  here  I  will  avenge  myself  by  remak- 
ing what  is  called  "  Prince  Eugene's  road,"  a  fine  communica- 
tion between  Semlin  and  Belgrade,  and  I  will  complete  a 
canal  begun  by  the  Romans  in  Syrmia ;  I  will  employ  my 
whole  corps  d'armee  in  that  way. 

The  Ufterdar  whom  I  have  with  me  as  a  hostage,  and 
who,  forgetting  Mahomel/,  pretends  to  mistake  Hungarian 
wine  for  sherbet,  told  me  the  other  day  that  the  ministers 
of  England  and  Prussia  were  desperately  anxious  that  the 


120  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

war  sliould  continue.  Those  two  powers,  by  their  infernal 
and  little  understood  policy,  want  to  make  Austria  lose  the 
Low  Countries,  and  England  wants  to  make  Frenchmen  lose 
France.  I  wish  they  would  make  haste  in  Vienna  and  con- 
clude a  peace.  I  know  very  well  that  women,  abbds,  and 
idlers  in  cities  never  want  peace.  But  even  if  we  had  all 
Bosnia  (very  difficult  to  conquer  because  of  the  castles  of  a 
Mussulman  feudality  whose  very  names  are  unknown)  we 
should  be  none  the  richer.  Let  us  be  content  with  Novi,  Sa- 
bacz,  Belgrade,  and  Choczim,  and  let  Kussia  be  content  with 
Oczakow.  Let  us  attend  to  the  most  pressing  thing  of  all, 
namely  :  extinguishing  the  conflagration  in  the  Low  Countries 
and  preventing  that  in  France.     Soon  it  will  be  too  late. 

They  can't  think  of  anything  at  Petersburg  until  they 
make  peace  with  Constantinople.  The  day  it  was  known 
that  Bulgakoff  was  put  in  the  Seven  Towers  the  empress 
was  almost  soiTy.  She  is  a  sovereign  for  history,  not  for 
romance,  though  people  do  not  think  so.  Prince  Potemkin, 
who  was  both,  has  completely  given  up  the  romance. 

France  will  be  punished  by  means  of  her  sin ;  she  will 
be  punished  for  having  assisted  America  to  revolt,  and  for 
having  encouraged  Turkey  in  its  enmity  to  Austria.  The 
poor  Turks,  knowing  little  of  what  is  going  on  in  Europe, 
think  that  their  allies  will  support  them  !  The  Englisli  will 
repent  themselves  of  not  supporting  the  throne  of  the  unfor- 
tunate and  virtuous  Louis  XVI.  My  God !  how  I  pity  the 
poor  queen  in  the  Tuileries.  The  details  that  your  Excellency 
gave  me  of  that  arrival  in  Paris  made  me  burst  into  tears. 

The  enlightenment  which  may  have  come  to  the  emperor, 
or  the  need  that  he  had  of  me,  as  I  was  his  only  field- 
quartermaster-general  during  this  whole  campaign,  mado 
him  send  me  an  order  to  leave  my  exile. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  121 

To  H.  L  M.  Joseph  11. 

Belgrade,  December,  1789. 

Sire,  —  I  am  overjoyed  with  the  permission  that  your 
Imperial  Majesty  grants  me  to  place  myself  at  your  feet 
and  remain  in  Vienna  until  I  lead  into  Moravia,  or,  as  I 
hope,  into  Silesia  the  army  that  returns  from  Syrmia.  I 
am  more  sensitive,  Sire,  to  favour  than  to  disfavour.  The 
care  I  never  ceased  to  give  to  the  siege  of  Belgrade,  and  the 
fever  which  quinine  could  not  conquer,  kept  me  from 
dwelling  on  the  grief  I  should  otherwise  have  felt  from 
that  terrible  phrase  in  your  Majesty's  letter  :  "  Expect  proofs 
of  my  displeasure;  I  have  neither  the  habit  nor  the  will 
to  be  disobeyed." 

I  remember  that  you  thanked  me.  Sire,  eleven  years  ago 
in  Bavaria  for  my  conduct.  This  time  your  Majesty  orders 
me,  by  return  of  my  courier,  to  send  no  more  letters,  because 
the  foreign  ministers  are  so  watchful  for  news.  If  I  did 
send  my  aide-de-camp  it  was  because  the  Comte  de  Choiseul 
wrote  me  from  Constantinople  begging  that  I  would  forward 
very  safely  and  very  promptly  his  important  despatch  to  the 
Marquis  de  Noailles,  who  was  to  impart  it  to  Prince  Kaunitz. 

I  beg  your  pardon.  Sire,  for  not  being  more  uneasy  at 
your  anger.  The  reason  was  that  I  know  your  justice  well. 
I  have  deeply  regretted  the  cessation  of  the  letters  so  fuU 
of  confidence  and  affection  which  your  Majesty  wrote  me 
last  year;  but  I  have  never  doubted  the  return  of  your 
kindness,  even  after  the  reception  of  your  stern  order  to 
choose  my  winter  quarters  at  Belgrade,  Effleck,  or  Peter- 
waradin,  instead  of  returning  to  Vienna  to  recover  my 
health.  I  said  to  myself :  "  That  untimely  journey  of  my 
aide-de-camp  to  the  Low  Countries  at  the  height  of  the 
revolt  may  have  made  his  Majesty  think  that  I  was  taking 


122  MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE. 

part  in  it,  and  forming  relations  with  tlie  malcontents. 
This  cannot  last;  his  Majesty  will  bethink  himself,  and 
will  then  feel  that  such  a  thing  is  impossible." 

During  this  time  I  have  been  taking  my  revenge  upon 
you,  Sire.  I  wrote  to  the  Queen  of  France,  entreating  her 
to  send  you  Dr.  Seyffert,  whose  great  talent  is  to  cure  the 
very  ill  from  which  your  Majesty  sullers.  I  hope  that  he 
arrived  in  time,  or  else  that  your  ^Majesty  no  longer  needed 
liim.  Nothmg  can  concern  me  more.  Sire,  than  your  glory 
and  your  life,  for  which  I  wouhl  give  my  own  ;  which  I  will 
expose  all  the  more  readily  before  Neiss  if  you  will  per- 
mit Mardchal  de  Lacy,  as  he  ardently  desires,  to  command 
under  the  walls  of  that  fortress,  and  prevent  the  king  from 
meddling  in  our  ai^airs,  and  playing  the  mediator,  wliich 
appears  to  be  his  mania. 

I  had,  as  will  be  seen  above,  received  orders  to  conduct 
a  part  of  the  army  into  Moravia  for  the  ensuing  campaign, 
for  the  purpose  of  putting  ourselves  in  opposition  to  the 
desire  shown  by  the  King  of  Prussia  to  lay  down  the  law 
to  us.  During  the  time  that  my  regiments  were  assembling 
and  marching  I  remained  in  Vienna,  where  I  was  very  well 
received  by  the  emperor;  who  thanked  me  for  all  I  had 
done,  and  kept  me  two  hours  talking  with  him,  ill  as  he 
was,  during  which  time  he  said  to  me  such  touching  things 
that  I  shall  never  forget  them  as  long  as  I  live.  I  tried  in 
vain  to  recover  my  health,  which  was  not  restored  for  more 
than  fifteen  months.  This,  however,  did  not  prevent  me 
from  fultilling  all  my  functions  during  the  species  of 
campaign  that  followed   in  1790. 

[The  Emperor  Joseph  II.,  died  in  February,  1790  ;  and  with 
him  the  Prince  de  Ligne's  public  and  military  career  came 
to  an  end, —  except  for  a  brief  period  before  1795,  during 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  123 

which  he  returned  to  his  hereditary  government  of  Hainault. 
Whether  this  was  caused  by  personal  prejudice  against  him 
in  the  minds  of  the  succeeding  emperors,  Leopold  and 
Francis,  whether  a  suspicion  still  hung  about  him  of 
sympathy  with  the  Belgian  revolutionists,  or  whether 
(which  is  more  likely)  the  fact  of  his  bemg  a  Belgian  and 
more  French  by  nature  than  Austrian,  made  the  Austrian 
government  after  the  final  loss  of  the  Low  Countries  in 
1795  unwilling  to  employ  him,  —  the  fact  remains  that, 
although  he  regretted  it  sincerely  (as  we  shall  see),  he  was 
never  again  m  active  service.] 


VI. 

1790. 

VIENNA:   JOSEPH  II:    HAINAULT. 

To  H.  1.  M.  the  Empress  Catherine. 

Vienna,  February  12,  1790. 

He  is  no  more,  Madame,  lie  is  no  more,  the  prince  who 
did  honour  to  mankind,  the  man  who  did  most  honour  to 
princes.  That  ardent  spirit  is  extinguished  like  a  flame 
whose  substance  has  burned  away ;  that  active  body  lies  be- 
tween four  planks  that  forbid  its  action.  After  watching 
with  his  precious  remains  I  was  one  of  four  to  bear  him  to 
the  Capuchins.  Yesterday  I  was  not  in  a  state  to  render  to 
your  Imperial  Majesty  an  account  of  this  sorrow. 

Joseph  II.  died  as  he  lived,  with  firmness  ;  he  ended  as  he 
began,  with  the  same  methodical  spirit.  He  directed  the 
procession  of  the  Holy  Sacrament  when  they  brought  it  to 
his  deathbed ;  and  he  lifted  himself  up  to  see  if  all  were  as 
he  ordered.  When  the  last  and  most  cruel  blow  fell  upon 
him  [the  death  of  the  Archduchess  of  Wiirtemburg] ,  the 
blow  of  fate  which  completed  his  sorrows,  he  said :  "  Where 
have  you  placed  the  body  of  the  princess  ? "  They  answered, 
"  In  the  Chapel."  "  N"o,"  he  said,  "  that  is  my  place,  and  you 
would  be  obliged  to  disturb  her;  put  her  in  some  other  place 
where  she  can  he  tranquilly." 

These  details  give  me  strength  ;  I  thought  I  could  not 
contmue  such  a  tale.     He  chose  and  regulated  the  hours  for 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  125 

the  prayers  which  they  read  to  him.  As  long  as  he  was 
able  he  read  some  himself ;  and  he  seemed  in  accomplishing 
his  Christian  duties  to  be  arranging  his  soul  as  he  always 
wanted  to  arrange  his  empire,  by  himself.  He  made  the 
physician  who  told  him  the  truth  about  his  state,  a  baron  ; 
he  loved  him  so  much  that  he  begged  he  would  follow  his 
body  to  the  grave,  asking  him  to  tell  him  as  nearly  as  he 
could  the  day,  and  even  the  hour,  when  he  should  descend 
into  it. 

The  emperor  said  to  me  a  few  days  before  his  death,  on 
my  an'ival  from  the  army  of  Hungary,  which  I  had  just  led 
into  Silesia :  "  I  was  not  in  a  state  to  see  you  last  night. 
Your  country  has  killed  me ;  Ghent  taken  was  my  death- 
blow ;  Brussels  abandoned  is  my  death.  What  an  insult  to 
me ! "  He  repeated  several  times  the  words  :  "  I  die  of  it ; 
one  must  be  made  of  wood  not  to  die  of  it."  Then  he  added, 
"  I  thank  you  for  all  you  have  done  for  me.  Loudon  has 
said  much  good  of  you  to  me.  I  thank  you  for  your  fidelity. 
Go  to  the  Low  Countries  ;  bring  them  back  to  their  alle- 
giance ;  and  if  you  cannot  do  that,  stay  there :  do  not  sacri- 
fice your  interests  to  me,  for  you  have  children." 

All  those  words  so  deeply  moved  me  and  are  so  engraved 
upon  my  memory  that  your  Majesty  may  feel  sure  there  is 
not  one  that  was  not  his.  My  conduct  will  be  my  answer; 
it  is  useless  to  repeat  my  words,  which  were  choked  with 
tears. 

"  Did  any  one  shed  tears  while  I  received  the  sacra- 
ments ? "  he  said  to  Mme.  de  Chancloss,  whom  he  saw  a 
moment  later.  "  Yes,"  she  answered,  "  I  saw  the  Prince  de 
Ligne  in  tears."  "  I  did  not  think  I  was  worth  all  that,"  the 
emperor  said,  almost  in  a  tone  of  gayety. 

Madame  —  shall  I  say  it,  to  the  shame  of  humanity  ?  —  I 
have  seen  four  great  sovereigns  die,  and  they  have  not  been 

Ver.  7  ^  fa  '  J  ^^^^  g 


126  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

regretted  until  a  year  after  their  deaths  ;  during  the  first  six 
montlis  men  hoped,  during  tlie  last  they  grumbled.  This 
was  so  when  Maria  Theresa  died.  Men  little  feel  at  the 
time  the  loss  that  they  sustain ;  their  minds  are  full  of  the 
new  reign.  It  will  be  a  year  before  the  soldier  will  say  : 
"  Joseph  IT.  faced  many  a  cannon-ball  in  the  dike  of  Bes- 
chania,  and  many  a  volley  of  musketry  in  the  suburbs  of 
Sabacz ;  and  it  was  he  who  bethought  him  of  the  medal  for 
Valour."  Yes,  it  will  be  a  year  before  the  traveller  will  say : 
"  What  noble  establishments  for  schools,  hospitals,  prisons, 
and  education  ! "  the  manufacturer  :  "  What  encouragement ! " 
the  labourer :  "  He  laboured  himself ; "  the  heretic  :  "  He 
defended  us."  The  presidents  of  all  departments,  the  heads 
of  all  bureaus  will. then  say:  "He  was  our  head-clerk  and 
our  superintendent  both  ; "  the  ministers :  "  He  killed  him- 
self for  the  State,  of  which  he  was,  he  used  to  say,  the  first 
subject;"  the  sick  will  say:  "He  visited  us;"  the  citizen: 
"  He  beautified  our  cities  by  making  promenades  and  open 
squares ; "  the  peasant  and  the  servant  will  say :  "  We 
could  speak  to  him  as  often  as  we  chose;"  fathers  of 
families :  "  He  gave  us  advice ; "  his  own  social  world : 
"  He  was  safe,  agreeable  ;  he  talked  pleasantly,  he  had  wit 
in  his  conversation;  we  could  speak  to  him  frankly  about 
all  things." 

I  am  talking  to  you,  Madame,  of  his  life,  when  I  meant  to 
tell  you  only  of  his  death.  Your  Majesty  said  to  me  m  the 
carriage  as  we  drove  to  Czarsko-zelo  some  ten  years  ago : 
"  Your  sovereign  has  a  mind  that  always  turns  to  the  useful ; 
there  is  nothing  frivolous  in  his  head.  He  is  like  Peter  I.,  he 
allows  you  to  contradict  him,  he  is  not  offended  by  resistance 
to  his  opinions  ;  he  wishes  to  convince  before  he  orders." 
To  exhibit  his  portrait  before  I  myself  continue  it,  I  send 
your  Majesty  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  Mar^chal  de 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  127 

Lacy  on  the  day  of  his  death.     It  will  show  you  two  persons 
at  once. 

Ah !  Madame,  it  is  fortunate  for  the  consolation  and 
honour  of  this  earth  that  your  Majesty,  by  your  health, 
system  of  living,  age,  and  gayety  have  still  some  forty  years 
to  stay  upon  it. 

I  am,  etc. 

From  H.  I.  M.  Joseph  II.,  written  on  the  day  of  his  death. 

Vienna,  February  9,  1790. 

My  dear  Mah^chal  de  Lacy,  —  Nothing  but  the  im- 
possibility of  writing  these  few  lines  with  my  trembling 
hand  would  induce  me  to  use  the  hand  of  another.  I  see 
approaching  with  great  strides  the  moment  which  must 
separate  us.  I  should  be  very  ungrateful  if  I  left  this 
world  without  reiterating  to  you  here,  my  dear  friend,  all 
the  feelings  of  gratitude  which  I  owe  to  you  for  so  many 
reasons,  and  which  I  have  had  the  pleasure  to  testify  before 
all  the  earth.  Yes,  if  I  have  become  something,  to  you  I 
owe  it ;  you  formed  me,  you  enlightened  me,  you  made  me 
know  men;  and,  besides  that,  to  you  the  army  owes  its 
formation,  its  influence,  its  consideration. 

The  sureness  of  your  counsels  under  all  circumstances, 
that  personal  attachment  to  me  which  never  failed  on  any 
occasion,  little  or  great,  all  that,  my  dear  marshal,  makes 
me  feel  I  cannot  sufficiently  reiterate  to  you  my  thanks. 
I  have  seen  your  tears  flow  for  me  ;  those  of  a  great  and 
wise  man  are  a  noble  apology.  Eeceive  my  farewell.  I 
embrace  you  tenderly.  The  only  thing  I  regret  to  leave  in 
this  world  is  the  very  small  number  of  friends,  of  whom 
you  are  most  certainly  the  first.  Eemember  me,  remember 
your  most  sincere  friend  and  affectionate 

Joseph. 


128  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

If  to  obtain  the  title  of  Great  it  sufficed  to  be  incapable 
of  littleness,  we  might  say  Joseph  the  Great;  but  I  feel 
that  more  than  that  is  needed  to  deserve  the  name :  it 
needs  a  glorious  reign,  dazzling,  fortunate ;  illustrious  ex- 
ploits in  war,  unexpected  enterprises,  superb  results,  possibly 
fetes,  pleasures,  and  magnificence.  Circumstances  refused 
to  Joseph  II.  all  brilhant  occasions  to  make  himself  known. 
I  cannot  flatter  after  death  any  more  than  I  can  in  life. 
He  was  not  a  great  man,  but  he  was  a  great  prince,  and 
the  first  among  the  first  of  them.  He  never  abandoned 
himself  to  love  or  to  friendship;  perhaps  because  he  felt 
himself  strongly  mclined  thereto.  Often  he  mingled  too 
much  caution  with  his  affections ;  he  checked  himself  from 
confidence,  because  he  saw  how  other  sovereigns  were  mis- 
led by  their  mistresses,  their  confessors,  their  ministers,  or 
their  friends.  He  checked  himself  on  indulgence,  because 
he  wanted,  before  all  things,  to  be  just;  he  made  him- 
self stern,  in  spite  of  himself,  meaning  only  to  be  strictly 
correct.  His  heart  might  perhaps  be  obtained  without 
deserving  it,  but  no  one  ever  missed  his  esteem  who 
deserved  it. 

He  was  afraid  of  seeming  partial  in  the  distribution  of 
his  favours ;  he  granted  them  without  adding  to  them 
cordiahty  of  manner;  and  he  refused  them  in  the  same 
way.  He  expected  more  than  nobleness  on  the  part  of  the 
nobihty,  and  despised  it  for  the  lack  thereof  far  more  than 
he  did  the  other  classes.  He  desired  the  greatest  authority 
in  order  to  keep  from  others  the  right  to  do  evil.  He 
deprived  himself  of  all  the  enjoyments  of  life  in  order  to 
teach  others  to  work,  for  what  he  hated  most  of  all  was  an 
idler.  He  was  out  of  temper  for  a  moment  if  any  one  made 
him  a  representation  or  gave  him  an  answer  that  was 
rather  sharp ;  he  would  rub  his  hands,  and  then  turn  round 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  TRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  129 

to  listen,  reply,  and  after  that  discuss  the  matter  as  if 
nothing  had  happened.  He  was  miserly  with  the  property 
of  the  State  and  generous  with  his  own :  but  "  generous " 
is  not  the  word  ;  it  should  be  "  beneficent." 

He  could  be  the  sovereign,  and  he  held  his  Court  well 
when  absolutely  obliged  to  do  so.  At  such  times  he  gave 
to  the  Court  (which  for  the  rest  of  the  year  had  the  air  of 
a  convent  or  a  barrack)  the  pomp  and  dignity  of  Maria 
Theresa.  His  education  had  been,  like  that  of  many 
sovereigns,  neglected  by  dint  of  being  over-cared  for;  they 
are  usually  taught  all  except  that  which  they  ought  to 
know.  Joseph  II.  in  his  youth  did  not  promise  to  be 
agreeable ;  but  he  became  so,  suddenly,  after  his  coronation 
at  Frankfort.  His  journeys,  liis  campaigns,  and  the  society 
of  a  few  distinguished  women  ended  by  forming  him.  He 
liked  confidences,  and  was  very  discreet,  though  he  mingled 
in  everything.  His  manners  were  extremely  agreeable ; 
never  did  he  show  any  pedantry.  I  have  seen  him  write, 
on  one  of  those  great  cards  he  always  carried  in  his  pocket, 
moral  lessons  of  gentleness  and  obedience  to  a  young  girl 
who  wanted  to  quit  a  mother  who  made  her  furious  ;  or 
music  lessons  to  another,  because,  having  been  present  at 
those  given  by  her  master,  he  was  not  satisfied  therewith. 

In  society  he  saw  instantly  if  any  one  was  annoyed  by 
him  about  some  order,  or  enterprise,  or  punishment ;  and  he 
would  take  great  pains  to  set  himself  right  with  society 
by  redoubling  the  charms  of  his  conversation  and  his  gal- 
lantry to  women ;  he  would  give  them  a  chair,  open  the 
door,  or  close  a  window  for  them.  His  courtesy  was  liis 
safeguard  agamst  familiarity.  He  fully  understood  little 
shades  and  distuictions ;  he  did  not  have  that  affability  of 
which  so  many  other  sovereigns  make  their  stock  in  trade, 
and  which  serves  them  to  mark  their  superiority ;  he  con- 


130  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

cealed  what  he  had  of  it  in  many  ways.  He  related  a 
story  gayly  and  with  much  natural  humour. 

He  knew  neither  how  to  eat,  nor  how  to  drink,  nor  how 
to  amuse  himself,  nor  how  to  read  anything  but  public 
documents.  He  governed  too  much  and  did  not  reign 
enough.  He  played  music  for  himself  every  day.  He  rose 
at  seven  in  the  morning  and  wliile  he  dressed  he  would 
sometimes  laugh  and  make  his  chamberlain  laugh,  but 
always  without  familiarity ;  also  his  surgeon  and  his  other 
attendants,  who  all  adored  him.  From  eight  to  twelve  he 
walked  about  among  his  various  departments,  where  he 
dictated,  wrote,  and  corrected  everything  himself.  In  the 
evening  he  went  to  the  theatre. 

Passing  from  his  own  apartment  to  the  cabinet  he  usually 
met  some  twenty,  thirty,  even  to  a  hundred  poorly  dressed 
men  or  women  of  the  people ;  he  took  their  statements, 
talked  with  them,  comforted  them,  and  answered,  by  writing 
or  otherwise,  the  next  day  at  the  same  hour,  and  he  kept 
their  complaints  secret  if  he  found  that  they  were  not  just. 
He  %vrote  badly  only  when  he  took  pains  to  write  well ; 
his  sentences  were  then  very  long  and  diffuse.  He  knew 
four  languages  perfectly,  and  two  others  fairly  well. 

His  memory,  spared  in  his  youth,  became,  perhaps  for  that 
reason,  extremely  good  later;  he  never  forgot  a  speech,  or 
a  face,  or  a  matter  of  business.  He  would  walk  up  and 
down  his  room  with  the  person  to  whom  he  gave  audience, 
talking  to  him  almost  with  effusion  and  a  smiling  air  and 
holding  him  by  the  elbow;  then,  as  if  repenting  this,  he 
resumed  his  grave  air.  Often  he  would  interrupt  himself 
to  put  a  stick  of  wood  on  the  fire,  or  to  pick  up  the  tongs, 
or  look  out  of  the  window.  He  never  broke  his  word.  He 
laughed  at  the  evil  that  was  said  of  him.  He  alarmed  the 
Pope,  the  Grand-Turk,  the  Empire,  Hungary,  Prussia,  and 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE.  131 

the  Low  Countries.  The  fear  of  being  unjust  and  making 
human  beings  unhappy  by  carrying  out  by  force  of  arms 
projects  he  had  already  begun  often  stopped  them. 

He  knew  very  well  in  Vienna  before  he  travelled  in  other 
countries  that  his  Court  was  not  as  brilliant  as  that  of  Ver- 
sailles, and  that  the  ocean  and  the  Mediterranean  bore  other 
vessels  than  those  of  the  Danube.  The  things  that  most 
struck  him,  though  without  amazing  him,  were  the  port  of 
Marseilles  and  the  canals.  Assuredly  he  could  never  rival 
them,  but  his  three  hundred  thousand  well-disciplined  sol- 
diers, the  crops  and  wine  of  Hungary,  the  few  taxes  of  the 
country,  and  the  esteem  of  his  people  consoled  him  amply 
for  what  he  could  not  have.  The  ill-humour  that  he  some- 
times showed  was  caused  chiefly  by  foohsh  or  indiscreet 
questions  that  people  put  to  him,  or  by  pleasures  they 
wanted  to  give  him  against  his  will.  "Mar^chal  de 
Mouchy,"  he  said  to  me  one  day  in  Paris,  "  forced  me  to  go 
to  the  theatre  ;  I  would  not  forgive  even  the  Mardchal  de 
Richelieu  for  that."  Some  one  asked  him  if  he  were  in 
favour  of  the  English  or  the  Americans.  "  It  is  my  trade 
to  be  a  king,"  he  replied.  Wlien  they  asked  him  if  there 
were  good  actors  in  Vienna,  what  their  names  were,  whether 
he  could  see  the  waves  of  the  Black  Sea  in  Vienna,  and 
whether  he  shot  as  well  as  Louis  XIV.,  it  made  him  laugh, 
but  did  not  amuse  him.  When  the  Mar^chal  de  Broglie 
took  up  a  whole  evening  while  people  present  hoped  to  hear 
the  emperor  talk  (which  he  did  extremely  well),  in  telling 
him  about  his  little  victory  at  Bergen,  it  made  him  laugh 
because  it  disappointed  the  audience.  He  answered  with 
pleasure  the  most  ridiculous  questions  of  the  common 
people ;  and  one  day  when  he  chanced  to  have  trimmed  his 
own  beard  an  innkeeper's  wife  asked  him,  as  he  got  off  his 
post-horse  at  the  inn  door,  what  office  he  held  about  the 


132  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

emperor  ;  to  which  he  replied  :  "  AVell,  sometimes  I  have  the 
honour  to  shave  him." 

It  is  to  the  turmoil  in  the  blood  of  Joseph  II.  that  w^e 
should  attribute  the  uneasy  restlessness  of  his  reign.  He 
never  finished  or  polished  any  one  of  his  w^orks  ;  and  his 
only  blame  is  to  have  merely  sketched  everything,  good 
and  bad.  I  think  I  have  mentioned  elsewhere  that.  Lord 
Malmesbury  having  asked  me  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign 
what  I  foresaw  of  it,  I  replied :  "  He  is  a  man  who  will 
always  have  small  desires  which  he  will  never  satisfy.  His 
reign  will  be  a  continual  wish  to  sneeze,  or,  if  you  prefer 
it,  it  will  be  an  erysipelas,  like  that  of  the  body  to  which  he 
is  subject." 

Without  this  restlessness,  this  constant  agitation  which 
brought  him  to  the  grave,  he  would  have  been  the  best  of 
sovereigns.  He  said  to  me  one  day  that  he  was  worn-out 
with  work  and  could  do  no  more ;  even  his  eyesight  failed 
him.  I  reproached  him  for  such  excesses,  to  which  he  re- 
plied :  "  What  else  can  I  do  in  this  country  (Austria)  devoid 
of  mind,  without  soul,  without  zeal,  without  heart  in  the 
work  ?  I  am  killing  myself  because  I  cannot  rouse  up 
those  whom  I  want  to  make  work ;  but  I  hope  I  shall  not 
die  until  I  have  so  wound  up  the  machine  that  others  can- 
not put  it  out  of  order,  even  if  they  try  to  do  so." 

One  day,  when  I  was  on  duty  as  one  of  thirty-six  ad- 
jutant-generals, rather  than  chamberlains,  an  Italian  priest 
with  a  singular  face,  very  wicked  if  it  was  not  crazy,  begged 
me  to  announce  him  to  the  emperor.  I  would  not  do  it. 
At  a  time  when,  like  a  child,  he  wanted  to  have  a  finger  in 
everything,  a  capuchin  came  to  me  for  admittance  in  order 
that  he  might  implore  his  Majesty  to  permit  his  monastery 
to  sing  through  its  nose,  he  having  forbidden  the  reverend 
fathers  from  psalm-singing  in  their  usual  style. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  133 

I  was  tlie  lieutenant-general  commanding  the  troops  in 
the  Low  Countries,  under  the  orders  of  a  worthy  man  who 
had  more  soul  than  head,  and  would  wilUngly  have  let  me 
do  as  I  wished  [Archduke  Albert  of  Saxe-Teschen],  when  I 
started  for  the  famous  journey  in  Taurica.  Never  would 
the  first  motions  of  a  revolt  have  taken  place  had  I  re- 
mained with  my  command.  If  the  friendship  felt  for  me 
in  the  Low  Countries  had  not  sufficed  to  stop  them,  a 
single  threat  on  my  part  would  have  made  their  instigators 
tremble,  and  a  single  cannonade  (had  I  been  absolutely 
forced  to  that),  charged  with  powder  only,  would  have  anni- 
hilated them.  We  should  have  seen  no  national  cockade 
and  no  volunteers  after  that. 

It  is  always  some  imaginary  good  which  begins  these 
revolutions;  if  there  is  any  real  good,  it  can  only  be  at- 
tained in  the  first  week ;  popular  troops  become  ridiculous  the 
following  week,  and  dangerous  the  week  after.  The  principle 
of  arming  the  citizens  against  the  populace  only  extends 
the  power  of  the  latter.  The  distance  between  them  is  not 
great  enough  to  prevent  their  interests,  ambitions,  drunken- 
ness, and  frivolity  from  bringing  the  two  classes  into 
sympathy ;  there  is  little  difference  between  them  except  in 
their  coats,  that  are  more  or  less  fine  and  more  or  less  ragged. 
I  could  have  healed  all,  if  the  emperor  had  been  wilKng  to 
let  me  start  from  Barczisarai  (though  to  my  great  regret) 
when  I  asked  him  to  do  so.  He  told  me  a  few  days  before 
his  death  that  he  repented  not  having  sent  me  there  directly 
after  the  siege  of  Belgrade ;  I  should  then  have  arrived 
before  the  taking  of  Ghent ;  he  also  said  that  he  regretted 
not  letting  me  go,  as  I  wished,  from  the  Crimea  in  1787, 
when  the  news  of  the  first  troubles  reached  him.  That  was 
the  moment  when  the  troubles  began,  and  when  all  might 
easily  have  been  stopped.     But  no,  the  populace  was  allowed 


134  MEMOIR   OF  THE   PKINCE   DE   EIGNE. 

to  learn  it  had  a  stronger  arm  than  it  thought,  and  no  one 
was  there  to  show  it  that  a  head  was  the  stronger. 

I  paid  my  court  to  the  new  emperor  [Leopold  II.,  brother 
of  Joseph  II.],  who  though  still  young  was  old,  thanks  to  two 
campaigns  and  the  training  he  had  had  from  Joseph  II., 
and  I  took  the  liberty  of  saying  to  him,  with  regard  to  the 
Low  Countries,  that  vigour  would  exempt  him  from  rigour ; 
and  that  six  months  of  firmness  at  the  start  would  con- 
solidate his  reign  forever. 

[The  policy  of  Leopold  II.  was,  however,  to  keep  at  a 
distance  the  friends  of  his  brother  the  late  emperor.  The 
Belgian  insurgents  having  been  subdued,  and  the  Austrian 
army  reoccupying  Brussels  in  December,  1790,  the  Prince  de 
Ligne  returned  to  the  Low  Countries  to  preside,  in  his  capac- 
ity as  hereditary  governor  of  Hainault,  over  the  States- 
general  of  that  province,  which  he  opened,  after  a  triumphal 
entry  into  Mons,  the  capital,  with  a  speech  of  which  the 
following  extracts  will  give  an  idea.] 

Messieurs,  on  seeing  me  here  among  you,  it  will  be  impos- 
sible for  you  to  doubt  that  it  is  your  happiness  that  recalls 
me.  Not  the  happiness  which  you  have  thought  you  en- 
joyed, for  I  see  nothing  worse  than  your  late  situation,  but 
that  which  will  now,  if  you  are  willing,  be  born  again  in 
our  native  land.  .  .  . 

"VVliat  was  it  that  the  emperor  asked  of  you?  A  more 
reasonable  criminal  code :  work  at  it  now  yourselves ;  a 
simpler  administration :  take  that  duty  upon  you  ;  no  doubt 
it  will  displease  individuals  by  lessening  costs  of  justice,  free 
travels,  free  tippling,  holidays,  commissions,  deputations,  law- 
suits, chicanery,  and  the  costly  collection  of  taxes  at  the 
expense  of   the   provinces   in   general   and  the   citizens  in 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  135 

particular.  Meet  the  emperor's  views  instead  of  opposing 
them ;  and  enlighten  me  wherever  you  can.  .  .  . 

It  is  shameful  for  our  country  that  we  do  not  ourselves 
fill  up  our  Wallon  regiments,  which  liave  done  us  so 
much  honour  by  help  of  foreigners  who  are  fortunately  in- 
spired by  our  esprit  de  corjjs.  There  are  not  eight  thousand 
soldiers  of  our  own  nation  in  our  ranks ;  and  the  country 
itself,  to  prevent  a  rigour  prejudicial  to  our  interests,  should 
encourage  recruiting  instead  of  hindering  it,  and  raise  our 
force  (partly  perhaps  as  a  State  militia)  to  sixteen  thousand 
Wallons  perpetually  under  arms.  .  .  . 

Instead  of  this,  what  have  you  had  among  you  ? 
Dull  calumnies,  stupid  enmities,  silly  suppositions  about 
conscriptions,  punishments,  taxes  to  40  per  cent,  despotism, 
invasion  of  private  property,  etc.,  and  foolish  edicts  for  the 
last  two  years.  I'  say  nothing  of  the  Oracle  of  the  nation 
(I  mean  that  to  our  shame),  the  ridiculous  Van  der  Noot, 
and  all  the  honours  that  have  been  paid  to  him.  He  was 
the  lawyer  whose  memorial  I  corrected  when,  with  fictitious 
warmth  and  a  jargon  and  reasoning  all  his  own,  he  attacked 
the  unjust  judgment  of  the  Council  of  Brabant.  "  I  shall 
go,"  he  said  to  me,  "  and  carry  to  the  foot  of  the  throne  a 
history  of  our  own  laws  which  favour  iniquity,  and  complain 
to  his  Majesty  that  his  government  protects  such  decisions. 
The  sovereign,"  he  added,  "  should  come  to  the  help  of  his 
people."  Those,  I  give  you  my  word  of  honour,  were  his 
words  said  to  me ;  and  yet  when  the  sovereign  came  he 
was  the  one  to  lead  against  him.  .  .  . 

Examine  for  yourselves  the  actual  facts,  and  see  if  we 
have  not  needed  a  new  code  and  a  new  system.  Have  you 
not  heard  your  merchants  groan  at  the  brutality  and  want 
of  knowled2;e  of  those  who  have  shackled  the  commerce  of 
every  man,  and  consequently  that  of  the  whole  country  ? 


136  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

Who  among  us  has  comprehended  how  to  wisely  balance 
the  rights  of  export  and  import  ?  See  the  prejudices  which 
have  in  the  past  hindered  our  commerce  with  a  nation  that 
desired  it  —  a  nation  that  was  till  recently  the  most  fortunate 
in  Europe.  "What  is  it  that  has  kept  the  Dutch  and  the 
Genevese  from  settling  among  us  ?  Your  intestine  troubles, 
your  bickerings,  your  libels,  so  ill-written,  your  fears,  so  ill- 
founded.  Who  has  done  most  WTong  to  this  country  but  the 
country  itself  ?  Let  it  therefore  repair  its  wrong-doing  and 
inform  me  of  whatever  it  may  judge  necessary  to  bring  back 
abundance  and  calmness  to  our  midst :  I  charge  myself  with 
fulfilling  it.  .  .  . 

And  since  I  speak  of  myself,  permit  me  to  remind  you 
that  my  ancestors,  who  always  held  anarchy  in  horror, 
were  the  sole  ones  to  keep  our  country  true  to  its  sovereign 
when  the  United  Provinces  were  about  to  be  lost  to  him. 
May  I,  in  like  manner,  have  the  great  consolation  of  unit- 
ing you  with  those  who  govern  us !  Had  I  not  gone  to 
the  Crimea  with  the  Emperor  Joseph  and  the  Empress  of 
Kussia,  I  should  have  stopped  your  rebellion  either  by 
speaking  to  you  as  a  zealous  and  sensible  compatriot,  or  if 
that  failed,  as  an  Austrian  general,  with  cannon  (without 
balls)  which  would  have  killed  you  with  fear. 

I  remind  you  also  that  I  have  often  resisted  in  your  favour, 
not  the  power  of  his  Majesty,  which  I  have  regarded  as  just 
and  enlightened,  but  that  of  his  government.  I  stood  firm 
against  its  acts  of  despotism,  such  as  the  killing  of  horned 
cattle,  the  grant  of  the  herring  fishery  (now  become  a  mon- 
opoly), the  establishment  of  government  prisons,  which  I 
prevented  in  Hainault,  and  that  injurious  and  impossible 
canal  which  it  sought  to  make.  At  the  risk  of  being  dis- 
avowed by  the  government,  I  compelled  the  Dutch,  weapons 
in  hand,  to   respect  JOUr  dikes  and  your  property ;  and  I 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  137 

have  often  received  from  you  a  thousand  benedictions  and 
most  touching  proofs  of  your  good  friendship. 

I  am  here  now  to  give  you  another  proof  of  mine.  Be- 
lieve me,  messieurs,  I  am  an  impartial  judge,  a  zealous  citi- 
zen, a  Wallon  soldier  who  never  learned  in  the  field  the  art 
of  dissimulating.  It  is  truth  that  my  voice  utters,  trusting 
that  it  may,  while  there  is  time,  bring  light  to  your  souls. 

I  have  never  done  harm  to  any  one,  no  matter  who.  Per- 
haps if  I  had  been  malicious  others  would  liave  done  better 
by  me.  I  have  seldom  had,  however,  to  complain  of  any 
one ;  but  I  do  remember  just  here  a  libel  which  a  man, 
named,  I  think,  Masson,  a  sort  of  lawyer  at  Nivelles,  put 
fortli  about  me.  I  had  the  greatest  trouble  to  prevent  his 
being  punished  for  it ;  and  as  it  was,  he  thought  best  to  leave 
the  country  for  several  months ;  which  proves,  even  more 
than  his  pamphlet  did,  how  little  he  knew  me. 

Among  other  shafts  that  I  have  forgotten,  he  said  in  this 
libel  (the  only  writing  of  the  kind  that  I  know  of,  for  no 
songs  or  epigrams  were  ever  circulated  against  me)  that  on 
my  entry  as  Governor  of  Hainault  I  had  the  air  of  an  old 
sultan  surrounded  by  his  harem,  with  whom  I  occupied 
myself  exclusively,  and  that  I  had  been  fool  enough  to 
believe  in  good  faith  the  acclamations  of  "  Long  live  the 
patriot  prince!"  That  last  accusation  was  quite  true.  It 
happened  in  the  church  where  I  took  the  oath.  I  accepted 
those  vivats  as  I  had  the  others,  never  tliinking  for  a 
moment  that  the  shouters  meant  malice. 

As  for  the  sultan  part,  that  does  me  too  much  honour.  It 
is  quite  true  that  during  the  slow  and  wearisome  procession 
some  very  pretty  girls  threw  bouquets  into  my  carriage,  and 
as  the  crowd  detained  them  close  beside  it  I  thanked  them 
a  great  deal  and  told  them  I  thought  they  were  charming. 


138  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

The  only  reproach  about  my  procession  which  was  not 
altogether  ill-founded  is  that  it  seemed  to  him  more  fantastic 
than  magnificent.  The  war  had  lately  ended,  and  that, 
together  with  the  revolution  in  the  Low  Countries,  had 
caused  me  to  spend  and  lose  a  great  deal  of  money.  I  could 
have  run  in  debt  to  gold-lace  my  servants  on  every  seam ; 
but  I  thought  the  people  would  be  better  pleased  with  me  if 
I  did  not  make  too  much  display.  I  had,  however,  two 
Turks,  four  liussars,  several  Eussians  and  their  beards,  a 
Tartar  with  two  dromedaries,  and  they  were  enough  to  pro- 
cure me  his  ingenious  comparison  with  Tamerlane,  or  the 
Emperor  of  China,  for  I  do  not  remember  which  of  the  two 
he  thought  I  resembled. 

It  was  quite  unfortunate  that  the  archduchess  [Maria 
Christina,  daughter  of  Maria  Theresa,  who  governed  the  Low 
Countries  conjointly  with  her  husband,  the  Archduke  Albert 
of  Saxe-Teschen]  became  extremely  cold  to  me  about  this 
time,  almost  without  my  knowing  why,  and  chose  to  take 
tragically,  as  a  want  of  respect  to  her  whole  family,  a  blunder 
made  in  addressing  a  letter  which  was  certainly  awkward. 
My  adjutant,  Dettiuger,  put  upon  a  letter  I  had  written  to 
Archduke  Albert  the  address  of  my  wife,  and  on  my  letter 
to  my  wife  the  address  of  the  duke,  —  I  being  at  the  time 
absent  from  home.  It  so  happened  that  I  had  proposed  to 
the  Archduke  Ferdinand  and  his  archduchess  to  come  and 
stay  at  Beloeil ;  and  I  had  given  the  same  invitation  for  the 
same  time  to  the  royal  highnesses  of  Brussels.  Now  I  said  in 
my  letter  to  my  wife  which  was  sent  to  Archduke  Albert, 
speaking  of  the  Milanese  royal  highnesses  :  "  We  shall  soon  be 
relieved  of  this  archiducal  caravan  "  [post-zug].  That  stupid 
nonsense,  which  was  good  neither  to  write  nor  to  read,  mansit 
alta  mente  repostu7n,  and  so  alienated  from  me  the  mind  of 
the  little  Court  that  the  archduke  did  not  ask  me  to  serve 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  139 

under  him,  as  he  otherwise  would  have  done.  The  arch- 
duchess is  quick-tempered,  but  she  does  not  get  over  her 
vexation  quickly ;  and  in  that  way  she  does  injury  to  the 
great  qualities  she  has  derived  from  her  mother.  The  arch- 
duke is  good,  and  has  much  military  knowledge,  but,  never- 
theless, I  should  have  been  useful  to  him.  Perhaps  there 
would  even  have  been  no  battle  of  Jemmapes,  or  the  battle 
might  have  ended  differently.  Perhaps  the  Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick, with  whom  I  should  have  had  to  treat,  would  have 
remembered  our  friendship  and  the  fact  that  I  could  pene- 
trate his  mind.  He  said  afterwards  that  I  was  the  man  best 
fitted  to  have  ended  that  war ;  to  which  I  replied  that  he 
ought  to  have  said  so  louder  and  sooner. 

Archduke  Albert  is  the  best-trained  soldier  and  has  the 
most  miUtary  erudition  in  the  Austrian  army.  His  Me- 
moirs are  worth  more  than  his  memory,  which  is  often  at 
fault.  But  let  him  appear  in  the  open  on  horseback,  and 
surrounded  by  many  persons,  and  any  one  would  say  that 
aU  he  knows  and  sees  marvellously  well  in  his  cabinet  has 
vanished. 

One  night,  soon  after  my  return  to  the  Low  Countries,  I 
was  sleeping  at  my  government  house  [in  Mons],  where,  for 
forty  years,  apparitions,  so  they  said,  had  been  seen,  and  I 
heard  such  a  noise  on  my  door  that  it  seemed  as  if  it  must 
open  or  fly  to  pieces.  I  rang  the  bell.  Angelo,  my  valet-de- 
chambre,  came  and  opened  the  door,  and  says  to  this  day 
that  he  saw  a  tall  white  figure  moving  away,  which  he 
might  have  pursued,  if  terror  and  his  legs  had  allowed 
him.  My  orderly  corporal  was  sleeping  in  the  antechamber. 
I  heard  nothing  more,  and  went  peacefully  to  sleep. 

When  the  Emperor  Leopold  XL,  thanks  to  two  persons 
who  called  themselves  my  friends,  gave  me  the  go-by  in  not 
making  me  marshal  at  his  coronation  in  Frankfort,  I  re- 


140  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

quested  him,  in  German,  through  the  Council  of  War,  and 
in  the  curtest  and  most  insulting  manner,  to  accept  the 
resignation  of  all  my  offices.  He  was  alarmed  by  that ;  but 
a  curious  circumstance  had  even  more  effect  upon  him.  I, 
who  seldom  dance,  danced  that  night  by  accident  in  his 
presence,  at  a  ball  given  by  the  Neapohtan  ambassador. 
I  did  more,  without  being  aware  of  it.  Louise  Hardegg 
having  come  up  to  take  me  out  for  a  galop  (it  often  hap- 
pens that  lookers-on  are  taken  out  in  this  way  when  they 
least  expect  it),  I  dashed  my  sword  to  the  ground,  with  an 
immense  clatter  of  chains  and  buckles,  almost  at  the  feet  of 
the  emperor.  I  was  not  even  thinking  of  him,  it  was  pure 
gayety,  having  just  heard  that  Charles  was  coming  back  to 
me  from  Ismail,  covered  with  glory,  and  wounded  but  not 
dangerously.  The  emperor  was  furious,  although,  haviug 
sucked  in  Italy  the  milk  of  dissimulation,  he  controlled  him- 
self enough  to  assure  me  (on  the  Thursday  after)  that  he 
should  make  me  marshal  on  the  following  Sunday.  I  am 
not  a  marshal  yet,  and  I  do  not  care ;  but,  to  make  the 
Court  feel  it,  I  never  appear  there  except  on  days  of  cere- 
mony and  obligation,  for  my  two  Orders  of  the  Fleece  and 
Maria  Theresa,  and  then  in  the  uniform  of  my  regiment,  not 
choosing  to  wear  that  of  a  general  officer. 

Wlien  a  good  solid  injustice  is  done  to  me  I  tell  of  it,  and 
after  that  I  thmk  no  more  about  it ;  but  this  one  I  will  here 
prove  by  two  letters,  full  of  promises  and  falsehoods,  which 
have  lasted  many  years.  The  letters  I  have  kept  only  to 
laugh  at.     Here  they  are :  — 

H.  I.  M.,  Leopold  II.,  to  the  Prince  de  Liyne. 

Vienna,  December  29,  1700. 

MoN  Prince,  —  Although  I  try  to  keep  my  papers  in 
order,  and  do  not  lose  them  as  a  general  thing,  I  have  lost 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  141 

one  for  which  I  am  very  sorry.  It  is  the  one  which  you 
sent  me  through  the  Council  of  War.  I  have  always  done 
you  justice  in  my  heart.  If  you  had  done  a  little  more  jus- 
tice to  me,  you  would  have  felt  sure  that  your  advancement, 
desired,  deserved,  and  promised,  could  not  be  delayed  for 
long,  and  only  on  account  of  complications  which  concern 
your  brother  officers. 

However,  that  is  all  past  now,  and  it  is  better  to  say  no 
more  about  it.  You  must  keep  your  present  offices;  you 
shall  have  others  in  due  time  and  we  shall  be  as  good  friends 
as  we  were  before.  I  am  persuaded  and  convinced  of  your 
zeal  and  attachment  to  my  service  and  person ;  and  you 
should  be  equally  convinced  of  the  esteem  and  consideration 
with  which  I  am  your  affectionate 

Leopold. 

Tlie  Archduke  Frauds'^  to  the  Prince  de  Ligne. 

Vienna,  October  29,  1790. 

MoN  Prince, — Pardon  me  that  I  have  delayed  so  long  in 
answering  your  letter,  which  I  did  not  receive  until  yester- 
day. The  exposition  which  you  make  to  me  of  the  situation 
in  which  you  find  yourself,  and  the  demand  that  you  make 
concerning  it,  are  more  than  just.  You  may  be  sure  of  the 
zeal  with  which  I  shall  interest  myself  in  this  just  cause, 
more  especially  for  your  sake,  mon  prince,  whom  I  esteem 
personally,  and  who  have  given  the  most  evident  proofs  of 
your  zeal  and  attachment  to  all  our  family.  Be  assured  that 
my  father,  and  all  of  us,  recognize  it,  and  for  myself  in  par- 
ticular, I  only  desire  an  opportunity  to  prove  to  you  the 
sentiments  with  which  I  shall  never  cease  to  be  your  very 
affectionate  Francis. 

1  Succeeded  his  father,  Leopold  II.,  as  Emperor  of  Austria  in  1792 ; 

elected  Emperor  of  Germany  July  5,  1792. 
Ver.  7  ^        •'  Mem.  10 


142  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

What  a  moment  it  is  when  we  behold  suffering  and  dying 
a  great  man,  whom  so  often  we  have  seen  laughing  at  death 
only  to  fall  into  its  hands  finally  like  any  common  mortal! 
Mardchal  Laudohn  called  death  to  come  to  him,  because  of 
the  awful  sufferings  which  the  incompetency  of  a  surgeon 
had  caused  liim. 

The  day  before  he  died  he  recognized  me.  The  door  was 
open  and  he  saw  me  in  his  antechamber ;  he  called  me  in  a 
dreadful  voice,  and  he  who  always  spoke  to  me  in  German 
attempted  to  speak  French  and  said :  "  Dear  Prince  de  Ligne, 
I  am  terrible."  It  was  true,  but  not  what  he  meant  to  say. 
He  wanted  to  make  me  understand  that  he  suffered  terribly. 
It  is  impossible  to  give  an  idea  of  what  I  felt.  I  wanted  to 
cast  myself  on  the  hand  of  that  old  and  honourable  soldier 
to  kiss  it  before  he  died.  I  choked,  and  was  forced  to  leave 
the  room. 

He  had  all  the  simplicity  of  a  child  and  the  credulity  of 
a  dupe.  An  intriguing  fellow  persuaded  him  he  was  a 
Scotchman  and  made  him  sign  himself  Loudon,  instead  of 
his  right  name,  such  as  I  have  written  it  above,  and  as  he 
himself  had  always  written  it  till  then.  His  wife  made  him 
a  Catholic  in  the  same  way ;  that  is,  he  believed  he  was  one 
without  knowing  much  of  religion.  Perhaps  he  is  all  the 
more  saved. 

There  is  no  one  who  has  not  wiitten  and  arranged  to  suit 
himself  the  causes  of  the  French  Eevolution :  the  bigots  say 
it  was  because  of  the  Encyclopedia ;  the  clergy,  because  the 
king  did  not  take  a  distinguished  confessor  through  whom 
they  could  have  governed  him ;  the  ministers,  because  he  did 
not  abandon  himself  to  their  guidance ;  the  courtiers,  because 
they  were  not  sent  on  foreign  embassies;  the  parliaments, 
because  they  were  made  to  feel  they  were  not  like  the  Parlia- 
ment of  England  (where,  moreover,  they  have  but  one) ;  the 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE,  143 

men  of  letters,  because  there  were  none  of  their  profession 
in  the  ministry;  lawyers,  because,  they  said,  the  Constitu- 
tion was  so  often  changed ;  authors,  because  they  were  not 
encouraged  at  Court;  merchants,  because  no  fetes  were 
given ;  the  peasantry,  because  they  could  not  get  relief  from 
the  corvee  and  the  salt-tax ;  and  I,  observer  and  man  of  the 
world,  who  belong  to  none  of  the  foregoing  classes,  having 
seen  all  these  thmgs  very  closely,  divide  the  causes  under 
two  heads,  viz:  — 

1.  Fools,  villains,  men  of  intellect. 

2.  Errors,  horrors,  and  stupefaction. 

That  is  the  synoptical  history,  or  whatever  you  choose  to 
call  it,  of  revolutions,  in  France  or  elsewhere,  in  morals, 
opinions,  politics,  —  in  all  of  them,  egotism. 

Vienna,  October  16,  1790. 

To  him  whom  I  thought  the  best  of  friends,  the  most 
amiable  of  men,  the  philosopher  the  least  philosophical,  a 
most  distinguished  man  of  letters,  a  brilliant  dragoon  officer, 
with  time  and  opportunity  the  most  honourable  of  courtiers, 
and  the  most  enlightened  of  ambassadors,  who  since  —  but 
then  he  was  all  that  — 

Louis  S^gur,^  —  Your  signature  is  not  anonymous,  and 
yet  it  is  not  yours,  for  it  is  the  stamp  of  error. 

Your  "  we  shall  come  safely  out  of  this  "  alarms  me.     The 

1  The  Comte  de  Segur,  the  trusted  friend  of  Marie-Antoinette,  at- 
tempted to  play  a  mediating  part  between  the  qiieen  and  the  revolution- 
ary instigators,  and  was,  naturally  enough,  distrusted  by  all.  The  above 
letter  answers  one  in  which  Louis  Se'gur,  dropping  his  title,  had  ex- 
pressed his  new  opinions.  After  the  date  of  this  letter  Louis  XVI.  sent 
him  as  ambassador  to  the  Court  of  Berlin ;  where  he  made  himself,  justly 
or  unjustly,  more  distrusted  than  ever.  He  returned  to  Paris  shortly 
before  the  king's  death,  and  continued  to  live  in  its  neighbourhood  until 
after  the  18th  Brumaire,  when  he  attached  himself  for  the  rest  of  his  life 
to  Napoleon.  —  Tr. 


144  MEMOIR  OF  THE  TRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

vile  aud  stupid  audacity  of  men  without  honour  who  attacked 
your  excellent  father,  and  the  little  respect  they  showed  for 
his  services  and  his  infirmities,  will  (I  said  to  myself)  pre- 
vent my  friend,  if  nothing  else  could  do  it,  from  rushing  into 
their  arms.  Alas !  I  was  mistaken.  When  one  knows  as  I 
do  the  warmth  of  your  soul  one  cannot  but  fear  its  exaggera- 
tion and  its  love  of  imaginary  good,  letting  go  of  the  good 
that  is  possible. 

Greece  had  sages,  but  they  were  only  seven.  You  have 
now  twelve  hundred,  at  eighteen  francs  a  day,  who  are,  un- 
perceived  by  themselves,  the  by-word  of  Europe, —  sages 
without  a  mission,  except  for  their  own  interests,  without 
training  in  affairs,  without  knowledge  of  foreign  countries, 
without  a  general  plan,  without  public  interest  (although 
that  term  is  made  to  cover  many  a  private  one),  without  ele- 
vation, and  without  respect  for  a  nobility  which,  in  its 
brilliant  days,  was  both  useful  and  beloved !  I  know  that 
they  reckon  on  the  ocean  which  can  protect,  but  only  in  a 
country  it  surrounds,  the  makers  of  laws  and  phrases. 

But  how  will  France  "  come  out  of  it "  ?  Suppose,  to  her 
sorrow,  there  are  more  of  these  unchained  philosophers, 
haters  of  pleasure  and  enjoyments,  who  assure  you  that  their 
children  will  be  deaf  to  the  cries  of  happiness  and  love  (which 
alone  is  sufficient  to  destroy  equality).  Will  a  nation  so 
young,  so  lively,  so  excitable,  which  is  now  engaged  in  strew 
ing  thorns  among  its  roses,  will  such  a  nation  be  restrained 
by  the  bits  of  a  riding-school  ?  I  will  suppose  a  dreadful 
event,  unforeseealjle  and  yet  possible  to  "  tiger-monkeys  "  as 
M.  de  Voltaire  called  Frenchmen :  they  might  overthrow 
the  king;  but  never  the  monarchy.  Though  a  Bourbon 
might  not  return  at  once,  perhaps  the  handsomest,  bravest, 
most  amiable,  and  best  liked  of  Frenchmen  might  some  day 
mount  that  throne,  once  shaded  by  laurel  and  myrtle.     If 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   PRINCE   DE  LIGNE,  145 

SO,  a  sceptre  of  iron  would  be  needed  to  prevent  a  return 
to  horrors.     Behold  the  result  of  liberty ! 

The  very  names  of  your  sages  of  to-day,  they  who  think 
the  universe  has  its  eyes  fastened  on  them,  will  be  effaced. 
Plato  is  not  good  to  follow,  my  friend,  either  in  love  or 
in  republics.  Diogenes  would  have  broken  his  lantern  in 
France.  Are  you  made  to  be  men,  you  children  —  the 
prettiest  children  upon  earth  ?  If  the  kings,  to  vindicate 
the  majesty  of  thrones,  desire  to  crush  you,  I  defy  you  to  get 
time  to  prevent  it.  You  will  need  time  and  a  great  deal  of 
it  to  collect  your  bodies  and  your  hearts  and  minds  in  the 
field.  I  know  your  nation  is  warlike  and  capable  of  great 
things  through  its  superiority  in  talents  of  all  kinds ;  but  I 
believe  and  hope  that  the  other  nations  will  not  be  so  un- 
skilful as  to  give  you  time.  "  Let  us,"  the  Great  Catherme 
writes  me,  "  let  us,  the  four  or  five  surrounding  Powers,  draw 
a  cordon  against  that  country  as  against  the  plague."  And 
with  all  those  powers  armed  to  the  teeth  upon  your  frontiers, 
your  commerce  and  communications  stopped,  you  will  be 
obliged  either  to  kill  each  other  in  civil  war,  or  do  as  your 
neighbours  tell  you. 

Farewell,  then,  noble  verse  and  song;  farewell,  divinest 
Poesy,  witty  and  spicy  epigram,  and  all  those  madrigals 
so  French !  Adieu,  lovers  and  gallantry !  Virgil,  Horace, 
Ovid  might  have  been  stern  and  mediocre  men  if  deprived 
of  softness,  pleasures,  flatteries,  and  abuses.  You  will  all 
be  very  wearisome ;  and  you  yourself  are  not  beginning 
ill. 

Come,  leave  a  country  that  is  always  either  above  or  be- 
neath its  part ;  where  the  destruction  of  arms  proves  how  little 
they  will  bear  them ;  where  escutcheons  are  broken,  noble 
mottoes  erased,  and  the  spirit  of  chivalry  is  departing.  Quit 
a  country   where   the   storm   now   muttering   without   and 


146  MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE  DE   LIGNE. 

within  will  fall  of  a  sudden  in  thunderbolts  and  lightning. 
Your  pretended  reason  is  a  will-o'-the-wisp  that  lures  you  to 
the  precipice.  Quit  a  land  where  the  more  superior  you  are, 
the  more  you  will  be  envied,  thwarted,  stopped,  and  the  less 
you  will  be  believed.  Come  away,  to  return  only  when 
Frenchmen  are  once  more  amiable ;  and  do  not  be  the  only 
one  to  do  so. 

Use  the  contemptible  friends  you  ought  never  to  have 
made  to  get  out  of  all  this ;  and  after  trying  all  you  can  to 
make  them  see  more  clearly,  have  yourself  appointed  ambas- 
sador to  Vienna,  whence  you  may  be  able  to  restore  some- 
thing, at  least,  to  a  state  of  safety  —  for  already  I  see  that 
crimes  will  be  judged  necessary  by  those  men  to  maintain 
themselves.  What  a  horrible  expression  !  Crime  a  neces- 
sity !  Evil  to  individuals  for  the  general  good !  Alas !  I 
shall  never  again  behold  your  Paris,  already  stained  with 
the  blood  of  unfortunates.  Judge  what  will  be  the  aversion 
of  Europe  if  more  is  shed. 

Ah !  Louis  Sdgur,  let  that  baptismal  name  you  have  just 
so  adroitly  revived  recall  to  your  mind  the  great  days  of  the 
great  Louis.  Give  your  hand  to  Louis  XVI.  to  help  him  to 
reascend  his  throne,  not  to  descend  from  it.  Be  more  royal- 
ist, all  of  you,  than  he.  You  ought  to  say  to  him :  "  One  fall 
leads  to  another  fall."  What  will  become  of  you,  gentlemen, 
if  that  fall  is  total  and  if  you  are  reduced  to  govern  your- 
selves ?  Under  what  auspices  are  you  marching  now  ?  The 
dames  of  the  markets  have  taken  the  place  of  the  Longue- 
ville,  the  Chevreuse,  the  Montbazon.  I  believe  that  you  will 
never  foul  yourself  in  that  awful  sink-hole  of  Paris,  but  you 
are  in  it  up  to  your  knees. 

Come  out  of  it,  my  friend,  I  conjure  you ;  and  say  before 
you  leave :  "  Messieurs,  your  national  debt  and  your  deficit 
are  no  more  than  a  laundry  bill.     Protect  your  priests,  they 


MEMOIR  OF  TIIE  PEINCE  DE  EIGNE.  147 

will  return  it  to  you.     Your  king  has  been  too  kind ;  your 
queen  too  indulgent  to  the  enemies  she  has  had." 

Think  of  it,  Louis  S^gur,  there  is  still  time.  If  you  do  it 
successfully,  or  even  if  you  tiy  to  do  it,  love  me  as  before. 

Pkince  de  Ligne. 

The  Comte  de  Segur  is  rightfully  a  man  of  letters.  He  is 
more  accurate  than  his  brother  the  vicomte.  His  so-called 
history  of  Frederick-WiUiam  is  excellent,  except  as  to 
Poland,  about  which  he  is  mistaken.  Prom  too  great  eager- 
ness  for  the  visionary  good  of  which  his  heart,  ardent  with 
love,  and  his  mind,  ardent  from  imagination,  led  him  to 
embrace  the  shadow,  he  was  mistaken  in  his  adopted  ideas, 
mistaken  too,  in  a  measure,  about  his  country.  But  his 
sensitiveness,  his  horror  of  the  crimes  committed  and  of 
those  who  committed  them,  the  good  he  said  and  desired 
for  the  king,  and  the  great  dangers  he  ran  in  consequence, 
have  given  him  more  claims  than  ever  upon  our  interest. 
Esteemed  by  Joseph  II.,  the  friend  of  Catherine  II.,  amiable, 
simple,  though  perhaps  with  an  air  of  not  being  so,  easy  to 
live  with,  unspoilt  by  his  successes  in  society  ever  since  he 
came  into  the  world,  distinguished  in  his  career,  he  became  a 
philosopher  in  another  direction  than  that  in  which  he  had 
commended  philosophy  to  me.  But  it  was  not  long  before 
true  philosophy  made  amends  for  the  errors  of  the  false,  the 
source  of  which  in  him  was  pure  as  the  soul  in  which  it 
rose.  I  here  confirm  all  the  good  that  I  have  ever  said, 
thought,  and  written  of  him ;  and  I  abjure  my  mistake  in 
having  thought  his  wrong-doing  so  considerable. 


VII 

1790-1792. 
BELCEIL:  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION:  CASANOVA. 

It  was  a  very  touching  sight  to  me  to  see  Monsieur  [the 
Comte  de  Provence,  afterwards  Louis  XVIII.]  arrive  at  Co- 
blentz  and  unite  himself  with  all  the  French  emigres  around 
the  Priace  de  Condd  and  the  Comte  d'Artois.  I  urged  them 
to  march  instantly  into  France,  without  arms,  or  nearly  so 
if  they  did  not  have  them,  and  try  ladders  or  a  secret  under- 
standing with  some  fortress  on  the  frontier.  Had  they  done 
it  France  was  saved.  The  Comte  d'Artois  and  the  Prince  de 
Cond^  had  fifteen  hundred  gentlemen  of  France  with  them 
at  Coblentz  and  at  Worms,  and  could  have  done  it.  But  the 
Comte  d'Artois  said  to  me :  "  There  is  to  be  a  coalition  of  the 
Powers  for  us."  I  replied :  "  They  will  deceive  you  and  de- 
ceive each  other  and  be  deceived."  He  said :  "  They  will 
not  let  us  assemble  in  force  with  arms."  To  which  I  an- 
swered :  "  They  are  laughing  at  the  Elector  of  Mayence,  who 
is  supporting  you,  monseigneur;  they  say  you  are  eating 
your  uncle  of  Treves  out  of  house  and  home.  Does  that 
look  like  supporting  you?  Come  into  my  little  empire, 
where  no  one  gives  orders  but  myself ;  come,  with  all  your 
Smigrh  and  jump  into  Marienburg,  which  is  only  half  a 
league  off,  the  next  day.  When  it  is  known  in  France  that 
you  are  in  a  fortress  they  will  trust  you  and  rally  round  you, 
and  you  will  be  master  of  France." 

So  I  said  at  that  time  ;  since  then,  what  ?  Fools,  aided  by 
scoundrels  who  began  to  take  their  places  by  first  associa- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  149 

ting  with  them  intimately,  declared  war  on  five  Powers  at 
once,  the  weakest  of  whom  could  have  beaten  their  army, 
which  at  that  time  scarcely  existed.  Here  begins  the  scene 
of  crime  on  one  side  and  blunders  on  the  other.  One  might 
make  a  calendar  of  those  blunders  to  take  the  place  of  the 
saints  in  our  almanac  and  of  vegetables  in  that  of  the  French ; 
beginning :  for  January  1,  Siege  of  Kehl ;  such  a  day,  re- 
crossing  of  the  Sambre ;  another  day,  entrance  into  Cham- 
pagne, and  so  on. 

All  the  astonishing  and  brilliant  successes  of  the  French 
armies  in  the  later  campaigns  were  due  to  the  fervour  and 
activity  of  young  generals  and  to  masses  and  levies  of  na- 
tional militia,  soldiers  for  war  only,  under  a  great  discipline, 
solely  for  essential  objects ;  these  did  splendid  service  out  of 
vanity  and  the  desire  to  recover  the  respect  of  the  world 
which  they  knew  they  had  lost  in  other  ways. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  Frenclimen,  on  whichever  bank 
they  were,  did  prodigies  of  valour.  Let  us  go  back  to  the 
source  and  follow  the  development  of  the  repubhcan  army, 
which  has  ended  in  being  that  of  an  absolute  monarchy, 
called  a  Directory.  Too  much  honour  was  done  to  it  in  sup- 
posing that  its  leaders  had  a  plan.  The  proof  that  they  had 
none,  and  that  circumstances  alone  gave  them  one,  which 
developed  by  degrees  as  the  CoaUtion  made  blunders,  is  that 
they  declared  war  before  the  army  actually  existed.  Two 
corps  alone,  one  of  fifteen  thousand  men,  another  of  seven 
thousand,  began  it,  and  were  routed,  as  every  one  knows,  the 
first  by  three  hundred,  the  second  by  six  hundred  men. 
During  two  campaigns  the  French  fought  little  and  badly. 
It  was  not  till  the  close  of  1793  that  they  got  together 
eighty  thousand  men  ;  by  that  time  the  first  mob  of  soldiers 
bribed  from  the  old  army  had  disappeared;  a  second  mob 
behaved  better ;  though  such   pillagers,  savages  that  they 


150  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

were,  shouting  and  roaring  the  Marseillaise,  their  generals  as 
ridiculous  as  they  were  atrocious,  making  the  conquered 
countries  laugh  and  weep,  —  such  men  were  not  yet  a  true 
French  army.  At  last  the  purified  mass  of  the  nation 
appeared,  in  1794,  and  not  till  then.  Bravery  and  intelli- 
gence soon  enabled  it  to  be  organized,  and  made  it  manage- 
able and  victorious.  It  became  a  true  army,  and  several 
armies,  whose  warfare  was  that  of  men  of  intellect.  Talent 
took  the  place  of  the  guillotine,  Jourdan,  Moreau,  Pichegru, 
made  their  appearance,  and  finally  the  conqueror  and  pacifi- 
cator, Bonaparte. 

In  the  beginning  the  French  had  too  many  enemies  to 
meet,  too  great  an  extent  of  territory  to  attack  or  defend,  to 
be  as  strong  as  their  opponents.  But  they  have  always  had 
an  advantage  in  their  method  of  employing  troops.  Their 
armies  of  sixty  thousand  men  have  beaten  armies  of  seventy 
thousand,  because  twenty  thousand  attacked  ten  thousand. 

The  French  in  the  olden  time  did  great  things  through  the 
honour  and  gallantry  of  their  nobility  and  the  science  of 
their  generals ;  but  once  thwarted  or  defeated  they  could  not 
recover  themselves,  and  Paris  was  often  their  only  rallying- 
point ;  Eamillies,  Eosbach,  and  Minden  were  all  disastrous 
in  their  results.  The  republican  army  of  to-day  brought 
intelligence  only  to  the  war,  but  it  proved  to  be  their  means 
of  superiority.  They  never  gave  or  accepted  battle ;  know- 
ing how  apt  they  were  to  be  routed,  they  were  careful  not  to 
expose  themselves  to  it.  They  never  pursued,  knowing  that 
they  were  liable  to  commit  great  follies  in  pursuit.  When- 
ever, in  the  beginning,  they  felt  they  had  the  under  side 
they  retired  and  took  up  another  position,  from  which  their 
enemy  again  had  the  trouble  of  dislodging  them.  Their  cav- 
alr}',  which  could  only  be  ill-mounted  and  ill-trained,  was 
never  known  to  come  openly  in  contact  with  the  superb  and 


MEMOIR   OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE.  151 

more  numerous  columns  with  which  it  would  have  had  to 
deal.  There  were  none  of  those  splendid  charges  of  twenty 
or  thirty  squadrons,  in  which  the  French  would  have  been 
knocked  over  in  a  moment ;  no  march,  on  the  day  of  the 
fight,  of  ten  battahons  in  line  of  battle.  Such  charges  would 
never  have  succeeded  with  men  of  intellect,  but  they  do  with 
men  of  war.  The  young  men  of  a  Court  are  impetuous. 
Those  of  a  savage  republic  are  not ;  it  was  death  behind 
them  that  made  them  ready  to  face  death  before  them.  The 
savageness  of  a  system,  without  which  that  republic  would 
not  have  held  together  a  week,  was  able  to  keep  the  armies 
in  hand  and  to  cast  an  impenetrable  veil  over  plans  of  cam- 
paign and  methods  of  executing  them. 

From  Athens,  France  has  been  to  Sparta,  passing  through 
the  country  of  the  Huns ;  beginning  with  Catiline,  there  has 
been  something  of  Sylla  and  Attila.  But  the  republican 
armies  would  never  have  become  what  they  have  since  been, 
if  the  Coalition  had  startled  them  in  the  beginning  by  num- 
bers, which  it  would  have  been  so  easy  then  to  bring  on,  and 
by  an  unexampled  rapidity.  I  do  not  like  to  quote  myself, 
but  I  said  on  the  day  of  the  declaration  of  war  that  what  we 
ought  to  do  was  to  thunder  and  stun  [fonncr  ct  eton7icr\. 
Instead  of  that,  we  went  into  the  wfir  relying  on  three  max- 
ims :  (1)  England  will  never  allow  France  to  keep  the  Low 
Countries ;  (2)  Italy  is  the  grave  of  the  French ;  (3)  The 
French  are  never  lucky  this  side  of  the  river. 

The  French  have  spent  a  treasury  of  money,  but  for  it  they 
have  treasures  in  artillery,  munitions,  fortresses,  plans,  maps, 
and  the  fullest  information.  Moreover,  they  have  the  good 
fortune  to  hold  the  offensive,  while  the  defensive,  to  which 
we  are  so  unfortunately  confined,  is  only  training  them  the 
better  to  war. 

Kome  was  taken  by  Brennus,  and  would  have  been  by 


152  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

Hannibal  had  he  made  a  few  more  marches.  Kome  was 
never  victorious  except  when  she  was  out  of  her  own  coun- 
try and  far  from  its  frontiers.  The  men  of  intellect  in  the 
French  army,  beaten  when  attacked,  took  their  defeats  as  les- 
sons. Correcting  the  faults  they  made,  they  took  good  care 
to  make  no  others.  Examine  the  changes  whicli  time  pro- 
duced in  their  method  of  gettmg  the  best  out  of  their  soldiers. 
The  leaders  knew  well  that  enthusiasm  never  lasts  of  itself 
very  long  ;  they  preserved  it  as  long  as  they  could  by  hymns. 
When  Dumouriez  entered  my  town  of  Mons  he  went  straight 
to  the  State  House  to  sing  the  Marseillaise  devoutly.  When 
they  saw  that  the  soldiers  could  no  longer  be  duped  in  that 
way  they  permitted  them  to  wrangle  in  the  ranks  and  to 
pillage.  When  it  was  found  that  puffed  up  by  their  suc- 
cesses they  needed  this  no  longer,  the  greatest  silence  and 
the  most  severe  discipline  were  enforced. 

Great  results  occupied  the  minds  of  the  generals,  rather 
than  glory.  They  felt  that  in  a  cause  like  theirs  there  was 
no  place  for  heroism  of  the  sort  of  Gaston  de  Foix  and  the 
Great  Cond^.  Nearly  all  of  them  were  gloomy  or  savage ; 
soldiers  who  httle  resembled  Frenchmen.  No  need  for 
knights  to  command  them;  they  required  only  intrepid 
leaders,  doggedly  cool  and  setting  a  good  example  under 
fire.  Well-fed,  having  all  he  wanted  to  drink,  encouraged 
by  rapine,  intoxicated  by  license,  bold  through  impunity,  the 
soldier  sometimes  won  great  advantages,  which  he  kept 
through  the  strict  order  that  tlie  generals  succeeded  at  last 
in  establishing.  Benefits,  encouragements,  and  compliments 
were  distributed  for  such  successes,  but  terror  was  the  pen- 
dant for  all  those  to  whom  blame  could  be  imputed. 

Even  before  I  saw  all  this  I  used  to  say  that  Montesquieu 
was  wrong  in  not  declaring  that  terror  made  republics,  inas- 
much as  they  can  only  exist  in  name  because  they  are  not 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  153 

that  in  fact.  Crime  gave  the  French  republic  birth;  the 
most  Oriental  of  despotisms  sustains  it.  God  grant  it  may 
have  virtue  for  six  months,  and  then  it  will  be  destroyed. 

H.  I.  M.  the  Empress  Catherine  to  the  Prince  de  Ligne. 

Peterhof,  June  30, 1791. 

Monsieur  le  Prince  de  Ligne,  —  If  the  extreme  size  of 
your  last  letter  gave  it  somewhat  the  appearance  of  a  kite, 
its  contents  in  twenty  very  distmct  paragraphs  had  the  air 
of  a  definitive  treaty.  I  must  be  pardoned  for  thus  mistak- 
ing it  in  times  when  my  mind  is  fully  occupied  with  such 
matters,  having  heard  of  nothing  else  for  ten  or  twelve 
months,  without  however  advancing  to  their  settlement  by  a 
single  square  inch. 

I  say  nothing  of  the  magic  lanterns  in  Warsaw,  where 
they  are  shouting  with  might  and  main  for  the  Jesuits, 
of  whom  you  seem  to  think  a  good  deal.  I  often  used 
to  tell  my  great  and  good  friend  Comte  Falkenstein  (whom 
I  shall  regret  eternally)  that  I  was  preserving  the  species 
intact  in  order  to  have  the  satisfaction  of  giving  them 
gratis  to  the  Roman  Catholic  countries.  You  may  have 
noticed  that  the  King  of  Prussia  offered  them  at  a  ducat 
apiece. 

You  must  find  great  pleasure  in  seeing  people  fight,  since 
you  are  advising  all  the  world  to  do  so.  So  far,  thank  God, 
your  advice  has  not  been  followed.  If  all  that  you  predict 
to  me  happens,  I  fear  those  cannons  will  keep  me  from  mak- 
ing cannons  on  my  biUiard  table  at  the  Hermitage.  Society 
has  danced  at  the  latter  place  this  winter  with  heart  and 
soul,  as  your  cousin  Comte  Stahremberg  has  doubtless  told 
you.  Also  there  were  plays  before  and  after  supper,  and 
masked  balls,  to  which  everybody  rushed  under  pretext  of 
amusing  the  Alexanders  and   Constantines,  but  everybody 


154  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

was  delighted  to  be  there,  myself  among  the  first,  and  the 
question  was,  who  was  the  best  disguised  ? 

After  that,  tell  me  that  the  grand  equerry  is  wrong  when 
he  proves  with  his  usual  physico-comical  rhodomontade  that 
gayety  is  a  proper  thmg  to  give  the  soul,  whereas  grav- 
ity, sadness,  and  especially  monotony  freezes  to  the  marrow 
of  one's  bones !  Do  you  not  think  it  singular  that  I  should 
admit  this  of  monotony  ? 

But  I  have  much  else  in  my  head.  For  instance :  I  am 
thinking  that  the  Academy  ought  to  found  prizes  for  answers 
to  two  questions,  namely :  What  have  honour  and  valour 
(precious  synonyms  to  ears  heroic)  become  in  the  minds  of 
present  citizens  under  a  suspicious  government,  jealously 
proscribing  all  distinctions  ?  —  whereas  Nature  herself  has 
given  to  the  man  of  intelligence  pre-eminence  over  a  fool, 
and  ordained  that  courage  be  founded  on  strength  of  body 
or  of  mind.  Second  prize  for  second  question,  namely: 
Have  we  any  need  for  honour  and  valour  ?  If  these  are 
needed,  emulation  must  not  be  proscribed,  nor  must  it  be 
shackled  by  its  inveterate  enemy,  equahty. 

I  rejoiced  for  a  moment  over  the  news  which  reached  us 
here  that  the  royal  family  were  safely  out  of  Paris,  their 
deliverance  effected  by  eight  thousand  gentlemen  of  France. 
But  my  joy  was  of  short  duration  when  I  learned  that  the 
escort  had  made  no  resistance  to  the  municipaUty  of  Sainte- 
Men^hould.  It  is  to  be  supposed  they  were  not  mounted 
at  the  moment;  but  henceforth  I  despair  of  ever  seeing 
them  so. 

I  am  much  gratified  by  the  confidence  you  show  to  me. 
You  will  always  find  in  me  the  same  honhomie  that  you 
seem  to  value.  I  am  convinced  that  my  grandsons,  who 
are  now  skipping  round  me,  will  have  as  much.  Alexander 
is  four  inches  taller  than  I,  and  his  brother  comes  up  to  his 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  155 

shoulder.     If  you  could  see   them  I  think   you  would  be 
pleased  with  them. 

To  H.  I.  Majesty  Catherine  II. 

Belceil,  September,  1791. 

Madame,  —  I  can  get  the  better  of  your  Majesty,  it  seems, 
only  in  the  size  of  my  paper ;  but  if  I  can  get  the  better  of 
you  in  anything  I  am  more  powerful  than  all  the  other 
Powers  of  the  earth,  who  cannot  even  equal  their  model  in 
beneficence,  justice,  generosity,  and  grandeur  of  soul.  My 
letters  being  long  on  the  way,  your  Majesty  can  always  be 
comforted,  on  receiving  one,  with  the  thought  that  you  are 
rid  of  me  for  the  next  three  months. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  not  to  answer  your  letters  at 
once.  I  devour  them,  and  then,  for  fear  of  losing  them,  I 
hide  them  in  a  sachet,  called  a  portfolio,  —  though  I  dislike 
the  men  of  portfolios.  I  write  your  Majesty  what  comes 
into  my  head ;  if  I  wrote  what  passes  in  my  soul  it  would 
be  an  expression  of  feeling,  or  of  admiration,  which  would 
bore  you ;  and  as  ennui  is  the  only  sovereign  of  whom  you 
are  afraid,  it  is  also  the  only  one  with  whom  you  keep  affairs 
in  statu  quo  before  that  enemy  can  attack  your  Majesty.  .  .  . 

I  have  told  several  English  and  Prussian  ministers  that 
with  Sevastopol  well  below  Oczakow  and  Kinbourn  (distant 
more  than  seven  versts),  under  the  cannon  of  which  is  the 
Vervalter,  they  do  not  know  what  they  are  talking  about 
when  they  declare  that  Oczakow  is  the  key  of  the  Black 
Sea ;  and  I  have  expressed  myself  on  these  various  Peaces 
made  by  clerks  in  offices,  who,  without  instruction  from 
generals  and  those  who  fought  the  war,  decide  boundaries 
and  make  concessions  without  knowing  the  geography. 
military  or  political,  of  the  region.  It  is,  however,  from  the 
cold  bureaus  of   clever   men   that   treaties   have   emanated 


156  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

from  the   time  of   King   Nimrod  —  who   certainly  did   not 
make  his  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 

I  have  seen  the  King  of  Sweden  lately,  with  more  interest 
than  ever  before.  He  told  me  rather  humorously  that  if  he 
had  been  king  of  another  country  he  should  not  have  been  so 
headstrong  and  perhaps  not  so  brave.  "  Sire,"  I  said,  "  as  a 
gentleman  perhaps,  and  as  a  knight —  "  "  Ah  !  that  is  just 
it,"  he  said,  with  his  amiable  vivacity ;  "  but  as  a  soldier,  to 
be  King  of  Sweden  one  miist  take  that  style."  "  I  can  imagme, 
Sire,"  I  replied,  "  that  your  two  Gustavuses  and  Charles  XII. 
have  rather  spoilt  the  profession."  "  I  cannot  reign,"  he 
went  on,  "  except  by  the  opinion  they  have  of  my  personal 
character ;  and  I  had  to  show  my  subjects,  more  than  the 
enemy,  that  I  did  not  fear  danger.  My  power  is  nothing 
compared  with  that  of  my  neighbours.  It  was  necessary, 
therefore,  that  I  should  have  it  said :  *  If  the  King  of  Sweden 
commits  certain  folUes,  Gustavus  HI.  maintains  them  and 
repairs  them.'  Perhaps  I  have  sometimes  unreasonably 
considered  myself  affronted ;  but  the  empress  respects  those 
who  will  not  bear  affront.  But  what  do  you  know  about 
it  ?  what  has  she  told  you,  or  written  to  you  ?  "  "  Nothing, 
Sire,"  I  repUed,  "  I  have  not  seen  her  since  your  war.  But 
when  she  sent  me  your  manifesto,  the  mention  of  Pugatchef 
seemed  to  me  to  have  irritated  her,  and  the  moderation  of 
your  Majesty  in  not  having  helped  that  rebel  to  dethrone 
her  did  not  please  her."  "  That  was  a  bit  of  temper  on  my 
part,"  he  said  warmly,  "  of  wliich  I  repented ;  but  I  did  not 
repent  the  war.  I  wanted  to  know  if  I  had  means  and 
talents  for  it.  I  have  perhaps  been  spoken  of  with  eulogy  ; 
I  occupied  the  stage.  There  is  more  glory  in  resisting 
Catherine  II.  than  there  was  in  Charles  XII.  beating  Petei 
the  Great."  In  the  king's  talk,  rather  too  abundant  per- 
haps,  there  is  always  wit,  piquancy,  and   an   intermediary 


'^/A.ey  (o^^'yn/e^yg)^  S^^h-^otj 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  157 

shade  between  talent  and  genius.  He  burns  to  command 
armies  if  war  is  made  upon  France  ;  but  who  would  intrust 
him  with  the  command  ?  I  tried  to  get  the  idea  out  of  his 
head  with  a  bit  of  flattery,  telling  him  what  Cineas  said  to 
Pyrrhus  [that  to  fight  against  the  Senate  was  to  attack 
another  Hydra].  Finally,  the  successor  of  the  Catholic, 
roaming,  and  eccentric  Christina  asked  me  twenty  times 
over  if  I  thought  he  had  lost  ground  in  your  Majesty's 
opinion.  I  reassured  him,  and  told  him  there  were  two 
ways  of  winning  it  and  keepmg  it,  —  valour  and  good  faith. 

After  having  stopped  the  fermentation  in  my  double  gov- 
ernment, civil  and  mihtary,  by  telling  them  that  there  is 
none ;  after  laughing  at  the  cowardice,  the  politics,  the  di- 
lapidation of  the  Van  der  Nootists,  and  the  pretended  royal- 
ism  of  certain  scoundrels  called  Vonckists,  and  having  put 
down  those  who  carry  their  noses  too  high,  I  shall  go  and 
pass  the  winter  in  Vienna,  if  I  am  not  fortunate  enough  to 
be  sent,  with  some  assistance,  to  preach  the  rehgion  of  kings 
in  France.  May  that  sermon  be  quick  and  strong,  to  finish 
the  sooner.  Thunder  and  stun  —  that  is  what  I  say  always. 
May  Heaven  preserve  us  from  a  delay  which  shall  give  that 
nation  time  to  collect  itself  and  train  for  war.  What  your 
Majesty  said  to  me  about  drawing  a  cordon  round  it  as  if  it 
had  the  plague  is  fine.  Let  them  make  or  unmake  them- 
selves by  civil  war ;  that  is  their  affair. 

Mine  is  now  to  end  this  letter  and  leave  your  Majesty  to 
yours ;  assuring  you  of  the  respect,  etc. 

I  was  perhaps  the  innocent  cause  of  the  massacres  at 
Lyons,  because  I  mstigated  in  that  town  the  hissing  of 
CoUot  d'Herbois,  a  miserable  actor,  who  was  oppressing  a 
very  good  one.  Chevalier,  whom  I  protected.  It  is  well- 
known  that  the  former  declared  he  committed  those  crimes 
Ver.  7  Mem,  11 


158  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE, 

to  avenge  himself  on  the  town  of  Lyons  for  the  insults  he 
had  received  there.  Among  other  disasters  of  which  I  have 
reason  to  fear  I  have  been  the  involuntary  cause,  I  must 
place  that  of  having  brought  about  the  misfortunes  of  Poland 
by  inducing  the  Empress  Catherine  to  receive  Ignatio  Po- 
tocki  very  badly  at  Kiev.  I  had  promised  King  Stanislas 
to  do  this  ;  on  which  Potocki  flung  himself  and  all  the  com- 
patriots of  his  region  into  the  arms  of  the  King  of  Prussia. 
Hence  the  constitution  of  May  3  and  the  consequences  that 
followed. 

During  the  first  days  of  the  emigration,  a  most  touching 
scene  occurred  one  evening  in  the  theatre  at  Tournay,  to 
which  I  had  driven  over  from  Beloeil  by  chance.  The  piece 
they  were  playing  was  "  Eichard,  Coeur  de  Lion."  The  audi- 
ence  saw  me  in  my  box  much  moved  by  the  air  0  Richard  ! 
6  mon  roi  !  tout  runivers  fabandonne,  and  they  applauded 
to  the  skies.  Frenchwomen,  old  and  young,  sprang  up  in 
their  boxes,  the  whole  pit  was  filled  with  young  French 
officers  who  sprang  upon  the  stage  as  if  to  the  assault,  crying 
out :  "  Vive  le  roi !  vive  le  Prince  de  Ligne  ! "  I  could  not  re- 
strain myself.  There  is  a  scene  in  the  play  where  they  vow 
to  avenge  the  poor  imprisoned  king ;  I  advanced,  applaud- 
ing, as  if  to  take  my  part  in  doing  so.  In  fact,  I  was  then  in 
hopes  that  I  might  really  do  so,  for  it  seemed  likely  that  I 
should  be  thus  employed.  That  movement  of  mine  caused 
more  applause,  which  only  ceased  that  all  might  wipe  their 
eyes,  which  were  bathed  in  tears. 

Sixty-four  of  the  best  gentlemen  of  France,  very  interest- 
ing men,  occupied  one  of  my  chateaux  at  the  beginning  of  the 
emigration  in  1791,  and  they  afterwards  wrote  me  a  most 
touching  letter  when  they  left  it.  What  might  not  that 
gallant  and  brilliant  youth  have  done  had  it  been  launched 
at  once  into  the  kingdom,  where  at  the  worst  a  civil  war 


MEMOIR  OF  TPIE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  159 

would  have  prevented  a  foreign  war  ?  But  it  is  none  the  less 
true  that  subsequently  many  Frenchmen  became  aristocratic 
and  believed  that  they  made  themselves  noblemen  by  emi- 
grating ;  so  that  in  this  way  the  Eepublic  has  created  almost 
as  many  as  it  has  destroyed.  Not  one  of  these  self-made 
nobles,  insignificant  though  he  be,  but  thinks  himself  the 
equal  of  a  Montmorency  because  he  serves,  he  says  (thouoh 
without  serving),  the  Throne  and  the  Altar ! 

It  was  thought  by  others  as  well  as  by  myself  at  the 
beginning  of  the  French  Eevolution  that  I  should  probably 
play  a  part  in  the  armies  of  the  Powers  opposed  to  it.  I 
received  a  letter  from  a  club  in  Magou,  signed  by  a  M. 
d'Aumbrat,  a  former  brigadier  whom  I  had  known,  inform- 
ing me  that  I  should  be  put  out  of  the  way  and  Beloeil 
burned  if  I  attempted  to  be  an  aristocrat. 

While  on  a  tour  which  I  made  through  my  province  dur- 
ing the  short  time  that  the  Low  Countries  remained  m  pos- 
session of  Austria,  a  certain  M.  de  Lacombe  entered  my  room 
without  having  himself  announced  and  said :  "  Monsieur,  I 
am  a  Jacobin,  but  tired  of  being  so.  In  order  that  there 
may  be  no  more  of  them,  I  am  about  to  return  to  France 
with  proofs  of  malversation  and  treachery  on  the  part  of  cer- 
tain of  my  comrades,  commissaries  to  Saint  Domingo,  which 
will  get  them  guillotined ;  I  shall  thus  gain  the  confidence 
of  the  Convention.  Having  done  that,  how  would  you  wish 
me  to  betray  it  ?  As  a  general  in  Paris,  or  with  the  army  ? 
Commanding  a  fortress,  or  in  the  councils  ?  It  is  all  the 
same  to  me.  Do  you  want  a  party  in  France  for  yourself 
personally  ?  There  is  one  for  the  Duke  of  York,  and  one  for 
the  Duke  of  Brunswick ;  but  you  are  better  known  and  liked 
than  either.  They  say  much  good  of  you,  monsieur,  in 
France,  where  it  is  known  that  you  have  passed  a  part  of 
your  life." 


160  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

I  thanked  him  for  his  offer  of  royalty,  which  I  abdicated 
on  the  spot,  and  then,  not  feeling  absolutely  sure  that  he  was 
a  madman,  I  advised  him  to  get  Lille  restored  to  the  Austri- 
ans  as  a  means  to  inspire  confidence  in  his  powers.  I  never 
knew  what  became  of  him,  nor  whether  he  was  or  was  not 
sincere  in  desiring  to  produce  some  revolt  in  Paris.  I  have 
a  dim  remembrance  that  I  read  his  name  soon  after  in  a  list 
of  the  guillotined. 

I  have  given  the  portrait  of  a  remarkable  man,  well- 
known  to  me,  Giovanni  Casanova,  in  my  Works,  under  the 
name  of  Avanturos  [vol.  xxv.  p.  87].  He  was  a  man  of 
great  mtelligence,  force  of  character,  and  knowledge.  He 
avows  himself  in  his  memoirs  to  be  an  adventurer,  the  son 
of  an  unknown  father  and  a  bad  Venetian  actress.  Those 
memoirs,  to  which,  among  other  things,  his  cynicism  gives 
a  high  value,  though  it  will  forever  prevent  them  from 
seeing  the  light,  are  dramatic,  dashing,  comical,  philosophi- 
cal, novel,  stupendous,  inimitable.  They  were  written  in 
1790  at  the  castle  of  Dux  in  Bohemia,  and  are  prefaced 
with  the  motto,  Vblentem  ducit,  nolentem  trahit,  wliich,  he 
remarks,  unfolds  to  the  reader  his  style  of  thought.  He 
read  them  to  me  himself  at  Dux,  but  I  did  not  observe 
the  dates  of  the  singular  events  of  his  life  sufficiently  to 
give  a  chronology  of  them,  except  that  he  was  born  in 
1625.  Epigrams,  songs,  ribaldry,  indiscretions  of  all  kinds, 
gabble  about  governments,  love,  jealousy,  imprudences, 
silken  ladders,  bribed  gondoliers,  adventures  of  all  sorts 
and  all  kinds  —  Casanova  denied  himself  nothing. 

He  played  the  seigneur  in  a  coat  of  gray  lutestring 
flowered  in  silver,  a  very  large  collar  of  Spanish  point,  a 
plumed  hat,  a  yellow  waistcoat,  and  breeches  of  crimson 
silk.  He  would  have  been  a  very  fine-looking  man  if  he 
were  not  so  ugly.     He  was  tall,  built  like  a  Hercules,  with 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  161 

an  African  tinge;  keen  eyes  full  of  intelligence,  but  emit- 
ting at  all  times  so  much  irascibility,  uneasiness,  and  spite 
as  to  give  him  an  air  of  ferocity.  You  could  sooner  make 
him  angry  than  gay.  He  laughed  little,  but  he  made  others 
laugh  ;  and  lie  had  a  way  of  saying  things,  between  that  of 
a  numskull  and  a  Figaro,  that  was  very  diverting.  There 
was  nothing  he  did  not  know,  except  the  things  he  plumed 
himself  on  knowing,  such  as  the  rules  of  dancing,  those 
of  the  French  language,  of  taste,  society,  and  savoir  vivrc. 
He  was  a  fountain  of  knowledge ;  but  he  quoted  Homer 
and  Horace  till  you  were  sick  of  them.  He  had  feeling 
and  gratitude ;  but  if  you  disf)leased  him  he  was  malignant, 
peevish,  and  detestable ;  a  million  of  ducats  could  not  buy 
back  the  smallest  little  jest  made  upon  him. 

He  believed  in  nothing,  except  that  which  is  the  least 
behevable ;  for  he  was  superstitious  m  every  possible  way. 
Fortunately  he  had  honour  and  delicacy,  and  if  he  said, 
"  I  have  promised  God,"  or  "  God  wills  it,"  there  is  nothing 
on  earth  that  he  was  not  capable  of  doing.  Here  is  his 
own  confession  of  faith  and  ethics  as  I  found  it  in  his 
memoirs :  — 

He  had  friends,  he  says,  who  did  him  good,  —  to  them  he 
was  grateful ;  and  enemies  on  whom  he  did  not  revenge  him- 
self because  he  could  not,  but  whom  he  would  never  have 
forgiven  as  long  as  he  lived  if  he  had  not  forgotten  the  harm 
they  did  him  ;  a  man  forgets  an  injury  but  does  not  pardon 
it ;  he  only  forgets  it.  Pardon  comes  from  heroic  generosity 
of  mind ;  forgetfulness  from  weakness  of  memory,  or  gentle 
indifference ;  sometimes  from  a  need  of  calmness  and  peace ; 
for  hatred  in  the  long  run  kills  whoever  indulges  it.  He 
is  a  theist ;  but  of  the  right  kind ;  always  certain  of  the 
action,  never  discontinued,  of  an  infinite,  immaterial,  all- 
powerful  God,  author  of  all  forms,  and  master  of  Nature. 


162  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

Knowing  that  His  essence  is  incomprehensible,  he  has 
never  submitted  it  to  the  examination  of  his  feeble  under- 
standing. He  dares  only  contemplate  it.  He  knows  it  is 
not  matter;  and  although  he  himself  is  in  all  things  like 
it,  he  nevertheless  has  nothing  in  common  with  it.  He 
knows  that  God  does  with  him  as  He  will ;  he  does  not 
know  how,  but  he  does  not  doubt  it,  and  he  pays  Him 
homage  in  adoring  Him.  He  adores  Him  at  all  moments 
by  addressing  to  Him  mental  prayers,  which  lie  has  ever 
found  consohng  and  efficacious. 

Casanova's  stupendous  imagination,  the  vivacity  of  his 
native  land,  his  journeyings,  the  countless  careers  he  had 
followed,  his  firmness  under  the  repeated  loss  of  every 
moral  and  physical  good,  made  a  rare  man  of  him,  and  one 
valuable  to  have  met  with,  worthy  of  even  consideration 
and  friendship  from  the  very  small  number  of  those  who 
found  grace  in  his  sight. 

Passing  through  Nuremberg  on  one  occasion  he  gave 
himself  the  name  of  Steingalt,  which  came  into  his  head 
at  the  moment,  and  from  that  time  forth  he  added  it  to 
that  of  Casanova,  to  make  himself  a  nobleman,  he  said,  with- 
out incurring  obligation  to  any  sovereign.  Tliis  was  after  his 
escape  from  the  Janissaries,  who  seized  him  in  the  streets 
of  Constantinople  for  laughing  at  the  Sultan.  There  was 
talk  of  impaling  him ;  but  Turks  are  slow  and  he  was 
quick ;  he  got  away  from  them  and  swam  to  a  ship  just 
sailing  for  Venice.  There  he  met  his  two  brothers,  also 
arriving  from  foreign  parts.  "  What  have  you  learned  ? " 
Casanova  said  to  them.  "  From  the  conversation  that  en- 
sued," he  remarks,  "  I  judged  that  one  of  them  would  never  be 
anything  but  a  ninny,  and  the  other  a  lunatic."  The  lunacy 
of  the  latter  was  the  genius  of  painting,  which,  developing 
soon  after,  has  made  nim  one  of  the  most  celebrated  battle 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  163 

painters  of  his  time,  supplanting  Le  Brun,  Van  der  Meulen, 
Houd,  and  Bourguignon.  The  prediction  about  his  other 
brother,  who  died  in  Dresden,  was  better  verified. 

Casanova's  adventures  in  Venice  are  too  well  known  foi 
me  to  relate  them  here.  I  shall  only  say  that  they  were  all 
certified  to  me  as  true  by  the  Venetians  themselves.  After 
he  escaped  from  the  horrible  and  inhuman  prison  under 
the  "  leads "  he  wandered  far.  Arriving  in  Paris  he  be- 
thought himself  of  Cardinal  de  Bernis,  the  only  person  he 
knew  there,  having  met  him  in  Venice.  His  money  was 
gone.  The  cardinal  asked  him  if  he  had  any,  and  gave 
him  a  post  in  a  lottery  office  which  was  worth  about  eight 
or  ten  thousand  francs.  But  what  was  that  in  Paris  ?  He 
spent  thirty  thousand  on  opera-dancers,  equipages,  liveries 
of  a  great  Italian  seigneur  of  the  worst  taste,  suppers,  and 
a  fine  establishment:  somebody  had  to  pay  for  it  all.  He 
chanced  to  meet  with  one  of  the  greatest  ladies  of  the  king- 
dom, Mme.  d'Urfd,  who  was  taken  with  his  large  eyes,  his 
singular  voice,  and  the  bronzed  skin  of  his  country.  He 
supped  with  her ;  talked  magic,  astrology,  and  cabala  in  a 
reasonable  manner;  made  light  of  the  first  two,  but  said 
he  was  strong  on  the  third.  "  Shall  I  give  you  a  proof  ? " 
he  said.  "  Have  you  anything  to  ask  for  at  Court  ?  I  can 
tell  you  what  answer  the  minister  will  make."  Whereupon 
he  made  calculation  with  words,  letters,  circles  and  Scripture 
numbers,  and  assured  her  that  Cardinal  de  Bernis  would 
speak  to  the  king  and  cause  her  demand  to  be  granted 
in  spite  of  the  difficulties  he  might  make  to  it.  Then  he 
went  off  to  the  cardinal  and  told  him  the  whole  story. 
Bernis  laughed  like  a  madman.  "  Let  us  talk  about 
Venice,"  he  said.  Casanova  reminded  him  of  certain  verses 
the  abb^  had  written  there  —  very  good,  but  very  loose. 
*'  Forget  them,  my  friend,"  said  the  cardinal.     "  I  am  on  the 


164  MEMOIR   OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

verge  of  being  turned  out,  as  it  is."  In  fact  he  lost  his 
place  a  few  weeks  later,  and  Casanova  lost  his  ;  but  not 
before  Mme.  d'Urf(5's  affair  was  successful.  Behold  Casanova 
crowned  with  benefits  !  He  taught  her  the  cabala,  and  more 
than  a  hundred  thousand  crowns  went  into  his  pocket. 

After  this  he  went  to  Ferney ;  and  the  first  thing  he  did 
was  to  quarrel  with  M.  de  Voltaire  by  letting  him  know  that 
the  "  Henriade  "  was  far  below  "  Jerusalem  delivered,"  and  he 
himself  still  farther  below  Ariosto  in  the  "  Pucelle."  In  spite 
of  which,  he  interested  M.  de  Voltaire  for  a  while ;  but  hap- 
pening to  praise  Jean-Jacques  at  a  moment  when  the  latter 
had  raised  all  Geneva  against  him,  they  jiarted  company 
mutually  displeased  with  each  other.  Casanova  became  sus- 
pected by  both  the  parties  who  have  always  divided  that  little 
republic,  and  went  to  England.  There  he  had  the  most 
piquant  love  and  benevolence  adventure  that  I  ever  heard 
of ;  but  I  do  not  remember  it  well  enough  to  tell  it  in  detail. 
His  fortunes  were  then  at  a  very  low  ebb,  and  what  could 
be  more  innocent  than  to  seek  to  build  them  up  ?  He  sees 
the  daughter  of  a  rich  banker  named  Hop.  He  pleases  her ; 
goes  to  her  father's  house  and  pleases  him  still  more.  To 
amuse  them  he  plays  cabala ;  chance  makes  all  his  promises 
succeed,  and  the  cry  is  "  Prodigy ! "  Mr.  Hop  says  nothing, 
pretends  not  to  believe,  and  asks  if  a  certain  vessel  that  he 
names  (which  was  thought  lost)  would  return  from  the 
Indies.  Casanova  figures,  calculates,  thinks,  and  predicts  "  in 
a  week."  Mr.  Hop  goes  out  and  insures  its  safe  arrival  for 
two  hundred  thousand  florins.  The  insurance  people  accept 
gladly.  Eeturning,  Mr.  Hop  embraces  Casanova.  "  You  have 
caused  me  to  win  two  hundred  thousand  florins  this  day,"  he 
says  to  him.  "How?"  says  the  other,  not  understanding. 
"  By  your  cabala ;  I  have  just  insured  the  safe  arrival  of  the 
ship."    Casanova,  frightened,  cries  out :  "  Go  back,  go  back,  if 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  TRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  165 

there  is  still  time ;  I  may  be  the  cause  of  your  ruin,  and 
what  a  return  for  all  your  kindness  !  I  am  a  most  unlucky 
man  I  My  cabala  is  only  a  joke;  there's  no  such  thing  as 
the  cabalistic  art."  "  Oh  yes,  there  is,"  says  Mr.  Hop,  slyly  ; 
"  that  is  only  your  modesty.  I  am  certain  of  the  fact."  Hap- 
pily for  both,  the  vessel  did  actually  arrive  in  port  the  next 
day.  Mr.  Hop  wanted  to  take  him  into  his  business,  and  the 
daughter  wanted  to  marry  him.  But  Casanova  said  he  did 
not  wish  to  do  them  harm,  and  tore  himself  away  from  love 
and  commerce,  assuring  them  that  the  acquisition  of  an  adven- 
turer was  not  desirable  in  their  family.  Mile.  Hop  was  in 
deep  distress  at  losing  him  for  a  husband,  and  could  only  be 
consoled  by  her  father  presenting  him  through  her  hands 
with  a  very  considerable  sum  of  money. 

A  vessel  was  at  that  time  setting  sail  for  Lisbon,  and  Hop 
having  given  him  letters  of  recommendation,  he  went  there 
and  was  well  received  by  his  old  friends  and  preceptors,  the 
Jesuits.  Thence  he  proceeded  to  Spain.  What  a  land  for 
Casanova !  Serenades  given,  or  dispersed  by  him ;  philo- 
sophical crusade  (ill-managed)  against  bull-fights ;  doubts  on 
religion ;  scoffs  at  the  grandees,  always  short  in  stature,  upon 
whom  he  looked  down  from  the  height  of  his  great  figure ; 
rivalry  in  love  with  monks,  —  in  short,  ten  times  more  than 
was  needed  for  an  auto-da-fe.  Happily,  the  daughter  of  a 
nobleman  cobbler  with  whom  he  lodged,  who  was  in  love 
with  him,  warned  him  in  the  nick  of  time,  and  he  took 
refuge  at  the  Russian  embassy,  the  secretary  of  which  was 
just  starting  for  Petersburg  and  allowed  him  to  escape  in  his 
private  carriage. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  during  the  seventeen  years  that 
Casanova  roamed  the  world  he  never  had  a  passport,  a  letter 
of  credit,  or  one  of  recommendation  —  except  from  his  Hop. 
His  adventures  in  Madrid  were  not  of  a  kind  to  induce  the 


166  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  EIGNE. 

Eussian  ambassador,  though  allowing  him  to  travel  with  his 
secretary,  to  give  Mm  any  to  Petersburg.  "  Well,"  thought 
Casanova,  "  here  I  am  at  the  end  of  the  world,  in  the  hottest 
and  the  coldest  of  countries  with  nothing  but  my  device, 
Volentem  ducit,  nolcntcm  trahit ;  perhaps  I  can  get  employed 
in  some  capacity  at  the  Court  of  Catherine,  secretary,  lover, 
librarian,  charge  d'affaires  somewhere,  or  the  governor  of  a 
great  seigneur.  Why  not  ?  Casanova  is  made  for  all  great 
places." 

At  the  close  of  one  of  those  Northern  summer  days  when 
there  seems  to  be  scarcely  any  night,  the  empress  was  walk- 
ing in  the  garden  with  all  her  Court,  when  she  saw  a  figure, 
rather  strangely  dressed,  Italian  as  it  seemed  to  her,  and  she 
guessed  it  was  the  man  whose  name  she  had  seen  on  the 
police  reports. 

Casanova  was  gazing  at  a  statue  with  a  contemptuous  air. 
"Apparently  it  does  not  please  you,  monsieur,"  she  said  to 
him.  "No,  madame,  it  is  out  of  proportion."  —  "It  is  a 
nymph."  —  "A  nymph  !  what  sort  of  nymph  is  that  ?  it  has 
no  attributes." — "Are  you  not  the  brother  of  the  painter?" 
— "  Yes,  madame ;  but  how  did  your  Majesty  know  that  ? 
and  how  is  it  that  you  know  that  dauber  ? "  — "  He  has 
genius,  monsieur,  and  I  think  a  great  deal  of  him." — > 
"  Genius !  you  may  say  fire,  colouring,  and  rather  fine  group- 
ing ;  but  design  and  finish  are  not  in  him." 

The  empress  passed  on  laughing ;  but  hearing  that  with 
the  little  money  that  remained  to  him  he  was  keeping  a 
gambling  table  at  a  cafd,  she  had  him  informed  that  that 
was  not  the  way  to  recommend  himself  to  her  favour,  and 
that  she  could  not  employ  him. 

After  this  he  departed  for  Berlin.  "  1 11  talk  to  the  king," 
he  said  to  himself,  "  about  Algarotti  as  if  I  knew  him  ;  and 
say  harm  about  German  literature,  which  I  don't  like,  and 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  167 

know  as  little  about  as  he  does  himself.  I  '11  ask  him  for  a 
place." 

Accordingly  he  presented  himself  as  the  man  who  had 
escaped  from  the  leads  of  Venice.  "  Is  all  that  true  ? "  asked 
Frederick  the  Great.  "No  other  man  than  your  Majesty 
could  ask  me  that  with  impunity.  I  have  never  lied." 
"  You  must  abhor  your  country."  "  Not  at  all  "  —  where- 
upon he  regaled  tlie  king  with  his  endless  paradoxes  on  gov- 
ernments and  laws.  After  which  all  the  classic  authors  (on 
whom  I  have  never  known  any  one  as  strong  as  he)  were 
passed  in  review.  Frederick  was  pleased  with  him  for  a 
moment,  and  asked  for  still  further  details  about  Venice. 
But  Casanova  must  needs  assert  that  Maupertuis  was  a  poor 
astronomer,  and  d'Alembert  a  poor  geometrician,  Voltaire 
nothing  of  a  poet,  dArgens  very  little  of  a  philosopher,  the 
Abb^  de  Pradt  a  bad  theologian,  La  Mettrie  a  bad  doctor, 
Beaumelle  a  bad  critic,  Diderot  a  bad  writer,  and  Konig 
a  pedant. 

Frederick  began  to  think  he  was  not  the  man  for  him,  but 
he  said  to  himself :  "  I  will  try  to  employ  him.  He  cer- 
tainly has  wits  and  knowledge.  He  might  be  useful  to  me 
in  some  of  my  establishments."  So  the  next  day  he  sent 
for  him. 

"  Have  you  patience,"  he  asked,  "  and  order  ? "  "  Very  lit- 
tle of  either,  Sire."  "  Have  you  money  ?  "  "  Hardly  any." 
"  So  much  the  better ;  then  you  will  be  satisfied  with  my 
small  salary."  "  I  must  be,  for  I  have  spent  a  million." 
■"  How  did  you  get  that  sum  ? "  "  By  the  cabala,  Sire ;  I 
knew  the  past  and  I  predicted  the  future."  The  king  began 
to  laugh.  "  So  you  are  an  adventurer,  are  you  ? "  "  Yes, 
Sire,  and  if  I  catch  fortune  now  by  the  tip  of  her  wig  1 11 
not  let  go  again."  "  You  will  not  find  fortune  with  me. 
However,  follow  me  to  my  school  of  cadets.     There  I  have 


168  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

a  quantity  of  incapables,  pigs,  stupids,  governors,  masters, 
preceptors  —  I  don't  know  what  to  call  them  myself.  I 
should  like  to  improve  them.     Come."     So  Casanova  went. 

He  asked  the  first  preceptor  he  met  what  his  salary  was. 
"  Three  hundred  crowns,"  was  the  reply.  "  Mercy  ! "  thought 
Casanova,  "  this  is  not  my  affair !  However,  I  '11  see  what 
there  is  to  do."  The  king  passed  in  review  a  line  of  govern- 
ors ;  found  they  were  pigs,  as  he  had  said,  ill-combed,  ill- 
clothed.  He  shook  his  cane  at  two  who  answered  his 
questions  badly.  Then  he  went  to  the  dormitories,  found 
them  in  a  filthy  condition,  and  ordered  the  head-governor 
into  the  Stockhaus,  that  is  to  say,  the  guard-room. 

Casanova  trembled  in  all  his  limbs  lest  he  should  be  sent 
there  too  in  case  he  refused  so  delightful  an  office,  and  when 
the  king  turned  to  offer  it  to  him,  behold,  he  was  not  there. 
He  started  the  same  day  for  Warsaw,  and  sent  Frederick 
word  that  on  the  whole  he  preferred  leads  to  irons.  .  .  . 

I  cannot  now  remember  where  else  Casanova  went  to  play 
the  knight  and  the  wandering  Jew,  for  he  was  a  little  of 
both ;  the  gates  of  all  towns  and  courtyards  and  castles  were 
more  or  less  closed  to  him;  but  I  do  remember  that  he 
came  to  Vienna  before  his  brother  Francesco  established 
himself  there.  He  took  advantage  of  the  good-natured  way 
in  which  the  emperor  received  all  comers.  Joseph  II.,  who 
forgot  nothing,  and  knew  everything  about  each  individual, 
said  to  him :  "  You  are,  I  think,  the  friend  of  M.  Sangouri." 
"  Yes,"  replied  Casanova,  "  a  Venetian  noble."  "  I  do  not 
think  much  of  that,"  said  the  emperor ;  "  I  cannot  respect 
those  who  buy  nobility."  "  And  how  about  those  who  sell 
it.  Sire  ? "  Joseph  II.  changed  the  conversation,  not  willing 
to  be  engaged  along  that  line,  and  soon  withdrew,  little 
pleased  with  his  visitor. 

About  the  year  1784  Casanova  went  to  Paris  for  the  last 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  169 

time.  My  nepliew,  Waldstein,  took  a  fancy  to  him  at  the 
Venetian  ambassador's,  where  they  met  at  dinner.  As  Wald- 
stein makes  a  pretence  of  believing  and  practising  magic, 
he  happened  to  mention  the  collar-bones  of  Samson  and 
Agrippa,  and  aU  that  sort  of  thing,  which  comes  very  easily 
to  him.  "  To  whom  are  you  telling  it  ? "  cried  Casanova. 
"  0,  che  hella  cosa  !  Cospetto  !  I  am  familiar  with  it  all." 
"  Well,  then,"  said  Waldstein,  "  come  to  Bohemia  with  me. 
I  start  to-morrow." 

Casanova,  at  the  end  of  his  money,  his  travels,  and  his 
adventures,  agreed ;  and  thus  it  was  that  he  became  the 
librarian  of  a  descendant  of  the  great  Waldstein  [Wallen- 
stein].  As  such  he  passed  the  last  fourteen  years  of  his  life 
at  the  castle  of  Dux,  near  Toplitz,  the  Chantilly  of  Bohemia, 
where,  for  six  summers,  he  made  me  happy  with  his  imagi- 
nation, as  lively  as  at  twenty,  his  enthusiasm  for  me  per- 
sonally, and  his  useful  and  agreeable  information. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  in  this  tranquil  haven, 
opened  to  him  by  the  benevolence  of  Comte  Waldstein  to 
save  him  from  the  storms  of  life,  there  were  no  storms  of  his 
own  making.  Not  a  day  went  by  without  a  quarrel  in  the 
household  about  his  coffee,  his  milk,  his  macaroni,  as  to 
which  he  was  very  exacting.  The  cook  had  forgotten  his 
polenta ;  the  equerry  had  given  him  a  bad  driver  when  he 
wanted  to  come  over  and  see  me ;  the  dogs  had  barked  all 
night;  guests  had  arrived  unexpectedly,  and  he  had  been 
obhged  to  dine  at  a  small  table ;  that  hunting-horn  had  torn 
his  ears  with  its  shrill  notes  (or  its  false  ones);  the  vicar 
had  plagued  him  by  trying  to  convert  him ;  the  count  did 
not  say  good-day  to  him  first ;  he  had  not  been  presented  to 
a  man  of  importance  who  had  come  to  see  the  lance  that 
was  run  through  the  body  of  the  great  Waldstein ;  the  count 
had  lent  a  book  out  of  tlie  library  without  informing  him ; 


170  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

be  had  made  a  bow  on  eutering  tlie  salon  such  as  Marcel, 
the  great  dancing-master,  had  taught  him  sixty  years  before, 
and  somebody  had  laughed ;  he  had  done  liis  steps  in  the 
minuet  at  the  late  ball,  and  somebody  else  had  laughed ;  he 
had  put  on  his  plumed  hat  and  his  suit  of  gold  silk  with  his 
black  velvet  waistcoat,  and  his  paste  diamond  buckles  on  his 
silk  stockmgs,  and  the  company  had  all  laughed.  "  Cos- 
petto  !  "  he  cried ;  "  canaille  that  you  are  !  You  are  all  Jaco- 
bins 1  You  are  wanting  in  respect  to  Monsieur  le  Comte, 
and  Monsieur  le  Comte  is  wanting  in  respect  to  me  not  to 
punish  you.  Monsieur  le  Comte,"  lie  said,  "  I  have  stabbed 
the  stomach  of  the  great  general  of  Poland.  I  am  not  a 
nobleman,  but  I  have  made  myself  a  noble."  The  count 
laughed ;  grief  the  more.  Tlie  next  day  Waldstein  went  to 
him  with  a  pair  of  pistols,  said  not  a  word,  but  looked  at  him 
gravely  and  offered  a  weapon  (expecting  to  die  of  suppressed 
laughter).  Casanova  wept,  embraced  him,  crying  out:  "  Shall 
I  kill  my  benefactor  ?  0,  che  hella  cosa  !  "  and  fell  to  talk- 
ing magic  and  macaroni. 

But  how  was  it  possible  to  endure  such  persecutions  ? 
God  commanded  him  to  leave  Dux.  Without  believing  in 
God  quite  as  much  as  he  did  in  death,  he  always  declared 
that  everything  he  did  was  by  God's  order.  God  ordered 
him  now  to  ask  me  for  letters  of  recommendation  to  the 
Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar,  wlio  was  my  intimate  friend,  to  the 
Duchess  of  Saxe-Gotha,  who  did  not  know  me,  and  to 
certain  Jews  in  Berlin.  He  went  away  secretly,  leaving  a 
farewell  letter  for  Waldstein,  very  tender,  proud,  honourable, 
and  cross.  Waldstein  laughed  and  said  he  would  come 
back. 

So  it  proved.  They  made  him  wait  in  antechambers  ; 
nobody  would  give  him  a  place  as  governor,  or  librarian,  or 
chamberlain.     He   said   the   Germans   were   all   oafs.     The 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  171 

Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar  received  him  well,  but  he  instantly 
became  jealous  of  Goethe  and  Wieland  —  very  naturally.  He 
declaimed  against  the  literature  of  the  country,  and  in 
Berlin  against  the  ignorance,  superstition,  and  rascality  of 
the  Jews  to  whom  I  had  sent  him ;  from  whom,  neverthe- 
less, he  drew  bills  of  exchange  on  Waldstein,  who  laughed, 
paid  them,  and  embraced  him  on  his  return. 

Enchanted  to  see  us  again,  he  related  most  amusingly  the 
vicissitudes  he  had  passed  through,  to  which  his  sensitive 
pride  gave  the  name  of  humiliations.  "  I  am  proud,"  he  said, 
"  because  I  am  nothing."  But  a  week  after  his  return  the 
troubles  began  again.  Strawberries  were  served  to  every- 
body before  they  were  to  him ;  and,  to  crown  all  grief,  his 
portrait,  which  he  had  thought  had  been  carried  off  after 
his  departure  by  one  of  his  admirers,  was  found  in  a  dark 
closet. 

Thus  he  passed  five  years  more,  fretting  and  distressing 
himself,  and  groaning  over  the  conquest  of  his  unhappy 
country  and  the  vanished  glory  of  his  superb  Venice,  which 
had  so  long  resisted  all  Asia  and  Europe.  His  appetite 
diminished  daily,  but  he  regretted  life  very  little,  and  ended 
it  nobly  towards  God  and  man.  He  received  the  sacraments 
with  grand  gestures  and  many  phrases,  and  said :  "  Great 
God,  and  you,  the  witnesses  of  my  death,  I  have  lived  a 
philosopher,  and  I  die  a  Christian." 

His  brother  Francesco  [the  painter]  was  also  a  singular 
man.  I  often  reproached  him  for  the  cannon  smoke  by 
means  of  which  he  evaded  finishing  his  mihtary  work  prop- 
erly. He  also  made  the  heads  of  his  horses  too  small  and 
too  arched ;  but  this  was  because  his  lay  figure  of  a  horse 
was  so.  I  once  asked  him  why,  in  one  of  his  great  pictures 
at  the  Palais  Bourbon,  he  had  painted  my  great-grandfather, 
on  a  gray  horse,  running  away  with  all  his  might,  when  m 


172  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRDsTE  DE  EIGNE. 

point  of  fact  he  was  made  prisoner  at  the  head  of  his 
infantry  after  doing  marvels  with  the  cavaky  at  the 
battle  of  Lens.  Thirty  years  later  he  made  a  fine  picture 
for  the  Empress  of  Eussia,  —  a  portrait  of  Joseph  II.,  sur- 
rounded by  his  great  generals,  Lacy,  Loudon,  and  others. 
What  was  my  amazement,  when  the  picture  was  exhibited, 
to  find  myself  among  them,  and  a  very  good  hkeness  too. 
My  comrades  were  hurt.  "  Why,"  I  said  to  Casanova,  "  did 
you  cause  them  pain  in  that  way  ? "  "I  did  it,"  he  said, 
"  to  repair  the  wrong  I  had  done  to  a  Prince  de  Ligne  in 
1648." 


^ 


'Tt/yvr^^icf 


Juki 


VIII. 

1735-1795. 
THE  FAMILY  HISTORY. 

[It  will  be  observed  that  in  his  memoir  and  papers  the 
Prince  de  Ligne  says  little  of  his  domestic  affairs ;  and  this 
omission,  taken  in  connection  with  the  very  conventional 
character  of  his  marriage,  would  naturally  lead  readers  to 
suppose  that  his  home  had  no  part  in  his  life.  So  far  from 
that,  he  had  a  large  family,  by  whom  he  was  greatly  beloved 
and  petted.  As  he  does  not  himself  make  mention  of  this, 
except  in  the  one  sentence  already  quoted,  "  I  have  known 
but  one  united  family,  and  that  is  my  own,"  this  chapter  on 
his  domestic  life  is  here  added.  It  is  taken  chiefly  from  the 
works  of  the  Baron  de  Eeiffenberg  and  M.  Lucien  Perey 
mentioned  in  the  list  of  authorities  on  pages  42  and  43  of 
Vol.  I.  of  this  book.  If  a  little  repetition  occurs  here  and 
there  the  reader  must  kindly  consider  it  unavoidable. 

The  house  of  Ligne,  one  of   the  most  illustrious  in  the 

Low  Countries,  possessed  from  the  12th  century  the  peerage 

of   Baudour,   and   from   the    13th    century    the    hereditary 

dignity  of  Seneschal,  or  Governor,  of  Hainault.     Jean  III.  of 

Ligne   received   from  Maximilian  of   Austria  in   1498  the 

collar   of  the   Order   of   the   Golden   Fleece ;  and   his  son, 

Antoine,   created  Prince   of   Mortagne   by  Henry  VIII.  of 

England,   whom   he   had    valiantly   served,   was   surnamed 

"  the   great  Ligne   Devil "  on  account  of  his  bravery.     In 

the  16th  century  a  younger  son  of  the  family  founded  the 
Ver.  7  Mem,  12 


174  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

house  of  Arenberg,  since  so  distinguished.  The  Lignes  bear: 
or,  a  bend  gules,  with  the  motto,  Semper  stat  linea  recta. 

The  father  of  Charles-Joseph  was  Claude-Lamoral  de 
Ligne,  and  his  mother  was  Ehsabeth-Alexandrine-Charlotte, 
Princesse  de  Salm,  who  died  at  his  birth  or  soon  after  it. 
His  own  style  and  titles  in  full  were  as  follows :  Charles- 
Joseph,  Prmce  de  Ligne,  d'Amblise,  and  the  Holy  Empire, 
Marquis  de  Roubais  and  de  Dormans,  Comte  de  Fauquem- 
berghe.  Baron  de  Werclun,  Beloeil,  Antomg,  Cisoing,  Villiers, 
Silly,  and  Herzelles,  Souverain  de  Fagnolles,  Seigneur  de 
Baudour,  Wallincourt,  and  other  places,  Chevaher  of  the 
Golden  Fleece,  Commander  of  the  Order  of  Maria  Theresa, 
Grandee  of  Spain  of  the  first-class,  first  Ber  of  Flanders, 
peer.  Seneschal  and  Marshal  hereditary  of  Hainault,  Field- 
marshal  of  the  Imperial  armies,  captain  of  Trabans,  colonel- 
proprietor  of  the  Wallon  infantry  regiment,  Saxe-Gotha,  and 
chamberlain  to  their  Imperial  Majesties. 

He  has  told  us  about  his  youth  in  so  fresh  and  boyish  a 
manner  that  we  need  nothing  further  to  bring  him  before 
our  minds.  He  says  in  one  of  his  letters  that  he  began  his 
fragmentary  writings  at  the  time  he  entered  the  army  in 
1752,  being  then  seventeen  years  old  ;  also  that  his  "  Journal 
of  the  Seven  Years'  War  "  was  partly  written  on  horseback, 
and  that  many  of  his  other  writings  were  the  solace  and 
amusement  of  his  horrible  winter  quarters  in  the  villages  of 
Bohemia. 

As  soon  as  he  became  the  master  of  large  means,  on  the 
death  of  his  father  in  1767  (being  made  a  lieutenant-general 
about  the  same  time),  he  travelled  much  in  the  summers,  to 
England,  Italy,  Switzerland,  and  the  eastern  parts  of  Europe ; 
but  he  has  left  no  record  of  these  journeys,  beyond  the 
slight  description  of  the  gardens  of  England  in  his  "Coup 
d'oeil  sur  Beloeil."     When  he  was  not  travelling  he  lived  at 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  175 

Beloeil,  dividing  his  winters  between  Brussels,  Vienna,  and 
Paris  until  1774,  when  he  went,  as  he  has  told  us,  to  Ver- 
sailles, returning  there  for  five  months  every  year  till  1787, 
the  year  of  the  Crimean  journey ;  after  which  he  never  saw 
Paris  or  Queen  Marie-Antoinette  again. 

The  family  home  was  at  Beloeil,  with  establishments  in 
Brussels  and  Vienna.  Tlie  great  hotel  de  Ligne  in  Brussels 
(where  the  prince  was  born)  was  close  to  the  Church  of 
Saint-Gudule ;  a  street  was  afterwards  opened  past  it  which 
bears,  or  bore,  the  family  name.  There  he  set  up  a  printing- 
press,  and  he  also  had  another  about  the  year  1780  at  Beloeil, 
which  was  used,  as  we  shall  see  later,  to  great  advantage 
by  his  son  Charles.  Married  in  1755  to  the  Princesse  Fran- 
goise  de  Lichtenstein,  she  gave  him  first  two  daughters, 
Princesse  Christine  and  Princesse  Euph^mie,  and  then,  to  his 
great  joy,  in  1759  his  eldest  son  Charles,  at  the  news  of 
whose  birth  we  heard  him  say  :  "  Ah,  how  I  shall  love  him ! 
if  I  return  alive  from  this  war,  how  I  shall  love  him!" 
The  death  of  this  young  man,  whose  nature  was  brave  and 
tender,  and  his  mind  and  acquirements  remarkable,  was 
the  great  sorrow  of  his  father's  life.  A  second  son,  Louis- 
Eugfene,  who  died  at  Beloeil  May  2,  1812,  two  years  before 
his  father,  is  the  ancestor  of  the  present  Prince  de  Ligne ; 
he  served  with  honour  and  distinction  in  the  Austrian  armies. 
Besides  these  there  were  two  sons,  Albert  and  Frangois,  who 
died  young,  and  a  third  daughter,  the  Princesse  Flore. 

In  a  preface  to  one  of  his  short  essays  the  prince  says: 
"  Christine,  who  is  an  enthusiast,  found  much  prettier  things 
in  the  '  Voyage  autour  de  mes  poches '  than  are  really  there. 
Flore,  who  is  a  lazy  girl,  agreed  with  her.  We  were  driving 
to  Euphdmie's  chateau ;  Christine  was  reading  the  book  in 
the  carriage  ;  I  could  not  say  anything  against  that,  because 
she  reads   very  well   and   is  very  useful.     But  I  did  say : 


176  MEMOIE  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

'  Do  you  not  see  that  the  merit  of  a  book  of  that  kind 
belongs  to  the  writer  who  first  imagined  the  idea  of  it  ? 
After  the  "  Voyage  autour  de  ma  chambre,"  which  gave  rise 
to  a  second,  and  then  a  third,  everybody  knows  what  is 
coming.'  '  Well,'  said  Christine,  *  if  it  is  so  easy,  write  one 
yourself.'  *  Yes,'  said  Flore,  '  and  put  in  all  the  nonsense 
you  hke,  but  begin  it  to-morrow,'  —  and  here  I  am,  doing  so. 
I  do  not  know  which  of  the  two  naughty  girls  it  was  who 
added :  '  We  expect  something  dreadful.'  " 

In  1779  a  proposal  was  made  for  the  marriage  of  Prince 
Charles,  then  just  twenty  years  of  age.  The  widow  of  the 
Prince  de  Ligne's  uncle,  whom  he  mentions  in  his  memoir 
as  a  "  very  narrow-minded  little  marshal,"  the  Princesse 
de  Ligne-Luxembourg,  was  at  that  time  living  in  Paris.  As 
lady  of  the  palace  to  the  late  Queen  of  Spain  (daughter  of  the 
Piegent)  she  had  received  from  Louis  XV.  an  apartment  in  the 
Tuileries.  Her  contemporaries  declare  that  her  face  was  the 
ugliest  ever  seen,  fat,  shiny,  never  rouged,  of  a  hvid  paleness, 
supported  by  three  tiers  of  chin.  The  Duchesse  de  Tallard 
8aid  of  her  that  she  looked  like  a  guttering  tallow-candle. 
But  she  was  kind  and  good,  and  took  an  interest  just  at 
this  time  in  a  bewitching  little  Polish  princess,  Hdlfene 
Massalska,  an  orphan,  in  the  guardianship  of  her  uncle, 
the  Prince-Bishop  of  Wilna,  who  was  being  educated  in 
Paris  at  the  convent  of  the  Abbaye-aux-Bois  under  the  care- 
ful supervision  of  Mme.  Geoffrin. 

The  elder  brother  of  the  Prince-Bishop,  H^lfene's  father, 
had  married  a  Eadziwill.  The  Massalskis  and  the  Eadziwills 
were  the  two  great  rival  families  of  Poland ;  the  Massalskis 
supported  the  faction  of  the  Czartoriskis,  assisting  the  latter 
to  put  their  nephew  Stanislas-Augustus  upon  the  throne 
in  concert  with  Pussia.  The  Eadziwills,  on  the  contrary, 
sworn  enemies   of   the  Czartoriskis,  defended  the  old  sys- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  TRINCE   DE   LIGNE.  177 

tern  of  the  Polish  republic,  and  were  very  hostile  to  Eussian 
influence  and  the  election  of  Stanislas-Augustus.  The 
Prince-Bishop  of  Wilna,  to  wliose  guardianship  Hdll^ne  and 
her  brother  Xavier  had  been  committed,  was  compromised 
in  the  recent  revolution  in  Poland,  and  he  was,  moreover,  a 
gambler  who  had  lost  in  three  years  one  hundred  thousand 
ducats.  Besides  this,  he  paid  from  his  privy  purse  the  costs 
of  his  soldiery,  the  Massalski  legion  of  sixteen  tliousand 
men ;  so  that  he  was  constantly  in  need  of  money,  although 
the  Massalski  territorial  possessions  were  immense. 

Prince  Eadziwill,  Hdlfene's  uncle  on  her  mother's  side, 
equipped  and  maintained  in  his  towns  and  castles  a  force  of 
twenty-eight  thousand  men.  The  struggle  ended  for  the 
time  being  in  the  triumph  of  Eussia,  the  Czartoriskis,  and 
Stanislas-Augustus.  Prince  Eadziwill  was  exiled  and  his 
property  confiscated  to  Eussia.  Thus  H^lfene's  fortune  on 
both  sides,  great  as  it  was,  was  in  jeopardy. 

In  1777  a  rumour  of  her  beauty,  her  name,  her  wealth 
crept  out  from  the  walls  of  the  Abbaye-aux-Bois,  and  suitors 
began  to  appear.  The  first  was  the  Due  d'Elboeuf,  Prince 
de  Vaudemont,  second  son  of  Prince  Charles-Louis  de  Lor- 
raine, Grand  equerry  of  France,  and  his  mother  was  a  Eohan. 
The  negotiations  for  this  marriage  were  carried  on  by  the 
Marquis  de  Mirabeau,  father  of  the  more  famous  man  of 
that  name.  Meantime  the  Princesse  Hdlfene,  who  issued 
occasionally  from  her  convent  to  appear  at  the  juvenile  balls 
of  the  Duchesses  de  Mortemart,  de  Chatillon,  de  Choiseul, 
and  others,  had  met  and  liked  Prince  FrM^ric  de  Salm,  a 
young  man  of  charming  face  and  manners,  the  bearer  of  a 
great  name,  the  possessor  of  a  magnificent  house  on  the 
Quai  d'Orsay,  who  was  not  only  worthless  in  character,  but 
a  proved  coward.  Of  these  last-named  points  Hdl^ne  was 
at  first  ignorant. 


178  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

As  a  marriage  of  this  kind  was  inadmissible,  and  the 
young  princess  refused  to  consider  the  Due  d'Elboeuf  or  any 
of  her  other  suitors,  the  Princesse  de  Ligne-Luxembourg  be- 
tliought  her  of  the  son  of  her  husband's  nephew,  the  young 
Prince  Charles  de  Ligne.  Prince  Charles,  judging  by  the 
following  reply  to  his  great-aunt,  was  not  very  ardent  for  the 
marriage,  but  his  mother  took  up  the  matter  warmly  and 
requested  the  princess  to  continue  the  negotiation. 

To  the  Princesse  de  Ligne-Luxemhourg . 

March,  1779. 

I  have  received,  my  dear  aunt,  the  letters  that  you  have 
had  the  kindness  to  write  me,  and  I  sent  them  at  once  to 
my  father.  There  will  be  difficulties,  as  far  as  I  can  see, 
about  the  affair  in  question.  We  are  all  impressed  with  your 
promptitude  in  taking  up  the  matter  that  interests  you,  and 
with  your  other  kindnesses  for  our  family,  for  which  we 
reiterate  our  thanks,  my  dear  aunt. 

The  young  lady  \la  petite  personne']  seems  to  me  rather 
determined,  and  not  very  delicate  in  her  choice,  as  she 
prefers  Prince  Prdd^ric  de  Salm,  who  has  so  bad  a  reputa- 
tion. All  this  is  provided  the  uncle  has  not  decided  already, 
for  it  takes  so  long  to  receive  answers. 

Accept,  my  dear  aunt,  etc. 

Charles  de  Ligne. 

The  friends  of  Princesse  H(51fene  feigned  to  ignore  her 
preference  for  the  Prince  de  Salm  (although  she  openly 
showed  it)  ;  they  dwelt  on  the  exceptionally  brilliant  posi- 
tion of  the  Princes  de  Ligne  in  Vienna  and  the  Low  Countries, 
and  assured  her  that  the  well-known  liking  of  the  Prince  de 
Ligne  for  the  Court  of  France  would  certainly  make  him 
give  her  an  establishment  in  Paris,  for  he  adored  his  son 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE   EIGNE,  179 

and  would  wish  to  have  him  near  him.  But,  they  added, 
it  would  be  best  not  to  make  that  a  condition  of  her  consent, 
as  it  might  oppose  the  wishes  of  the  Princesse  de  Ligne. 
Thus  urged,  H^lene  withdrew  her  positive  refusal  and  asked 
for  time  to  make  her  decision,  which  was  all  the  more 
readily  granted  because  Prince  Charles  and  his  father  were 
then  with  the  Austrian  army  in  Bavaria. 

Prince  Charles  had  been  trained  at  the  famous  military 
school  in  Strasburg  for  four  years  ;  on  leaving  it,  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  he  entered  the  service  of  Austria  as  second  lieu- 
tenant of  engineers.  His  preference  was  strongly  for  the 
artillery,  but  he  accepted  the  engineers  to  please  his  father. 
At  the  moment  when  these  negotiations  for  his  marriage 
began,  the  war  between  Austria  and  Prussia  about  the  Bava- 
rian Succession  had  broken  out.  The  young  prince  was  with 
the  army  under  the  emperor  and  Mar^chal  de  Lacy ;  his 
father,  as  we  know,  was  with  that  under  Mar^chal  Loudon, 
and  they  wrote  to  each  other  constantly.  Here  is  one  of 
the  father's  letters :  — 

June  26,  1778. 

Well,  my  engineer,  so  you  are  still  fortifying,  but  not 
fortified,  I  see,  in  your  respect  for  the  genius  of  engineering. 

The  emperor  has  been  here  to  make  what  might  be  called 
his  grumble.  He  said  he  wanted  real  war,  but  did  not  think 
he  should  get  it.  "  Who  will  bet  ? "  he  said  to  us.  "  Every- 
body," replied  Mar^chal  Loudon,  who  is  very  much  out  of 
humour.  "  Everybody  is  nobody,"  said  the  emperor.  "  Well 
I,  for  example,"  said  Mar^chal  de  Lacy.  "  How  much  ? " 
asked  the  emperor,  who  expected  a  bet  of  twenty  ducats 
or  so.  "  Two  hundred  thousand  florins,"  replied  the  marshal. 
The  emperor  made  a  diabolical  face,  and  felt  that  he  had 
received  a  public  lesson. 

He  has  been  very  amiable  to  me.     He  is  always  afraid  we 


180  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

should  play  the  teacher  to  him.  He  was  much  pleased  with 
my  troops,  and  told  me  much  good  of  you,  my  dear  Charles, 
whom  he  has  seen  to  work  wonderfully  well.  He  has  just 
gone ;  I  see  him  still  from  my  window. 

I  laugh  at  myself  and  others  when  I  think  that,  unappre- 
ciated, I  know  I  am  worth  more  than  people  think.  Here  I 
am  drilling  every  company  myself.  I  crack  my  throat  in 
commanding  six  battalions  at  once.  There  is  not  a  Jcaloujy, 
as  they  say  in  Bavaria,  meaning  a  wretched  hut,  containing 
no  more  than  four  soldiers,  that  I  do  not  visit  myself,  to 
taste  the  men's  soup  and  their  bread,  and  weigh  their  meat  to 
be  sure  they  are  not  cheated.  There  is  not  a  man  to  whom 
I  have  not  spoken  and  given  vegetables  or  something  else ; 
there  is  not  an  ofhcer  I  have  not  had  to  dinner,  trying  to 
electrify  them  all  for  this  war.  My  comrades  do  not  do  that 
sort  of  thing,  and  they  are  very  wise,  for  no  one  finds  fault 
with  them.  Not  one  of  them  cares  about  this  war ;  they 
talk  in  the  most  pacific  manner  to  young  men,  expecting 
with  time  to  make  them  good  and  zealous  generals  in  that 
way !  That  is  very  well,  they  will  be  generals-in-chief 
sooner  than  I,  and  that  is  very  well  too. 

If  an  infantry  officer  may  be  allowed  to  embrace  an  officer 
of  engineers  and  a  genius  for  work,  I  embrace  you,  my  boy. 
I  am  charmed  that  you  get  credit  for  doing  well  those 
worthless  works.  Adieu,  imj  excellent  work ;  adieu,  my 
masterpiece  —  almost  as  good  as  Christine. 

The  Bavarian  war  being  at  an  end,  the  Prince-Bishop 
thought  it  time  to  obtain  through  the  Princesse  de  Ligne- 
Luxembourg  some  definite  information  as  to  the  property  of 
the  Prince  de  Ligne  and  the  settlements  he  would  make  on 
the  marriage.  The  reply  to  these  inquiries  came  promptly 
from  the  mother  of  Prince  Charles. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  181 

The  Frincesse  de   Lignc  {Lichtenstein)  to  the  Princesse  de 
Lignc-Luxemhourcj. 

You  do  not  doubt,  I  hope,  princess,  the  tender  sentiments 
that  I  feel  for  you ;  those  of  gratitude  which  I  owe  you  at 
this  moment  cannot  add  to  them. 

I  have  the  honour  to  send  you  a  statement  of  the  property 
of  M.  de  Ligne.  As,  for  a  year  past,  he  has  placed  his  affairs 
in  my  hands,  I  signing  for  him  and  drawing  his  revenues,  M. 
de  Ligne  himself  giving  me  a  receipt  for  all  the  money  he 
receives  from  his  estates,  I  can  guarantee  to  you  the  correct- 
ness of  this  statement. 

I  know  my  husband's  tender  feeling  and  confidence  towards 
you,  princess,  too  well  not  to  be  certain  he  will  agree  to  any 
arrangement  you  may  think  proper  to  make  in  regard  to  our 
son.  I  shall  venture  to  request,  madame,  that  if  you  think 
twenty-five  thousand  francs  too  small  an  income  for  the  im- 
mediate establishment,  you  will  yourself  fix  the  sum ;  be- 
cause, as  I  only  need  one  year  to  put  our  affairs  in  proper 
order  (the  public  has  been  pleased  to  think  them  far  more 
disordered  than  I  have  found  them),  I  can  promise  to  agree 
to  any  arrangements  you  may  make  for  our  young  people. 
They  will  have  no  other  trouble  in  obtaining  their  income 
than  to  give  their  signatures  every  three  months.  I  have 
made  it  a  law  to  myself,  in  regulating  our  affairs,  to  regard 
as  sacred  the  times  fixed  for  the  payment  of  incomes  and 
pensions. 

It  may  ill  become  me,  my  tenderness  for  my  children 
blinding  me  perhaps,  to  praise  our  son  to  you ;  but  I  think, 
from  what  those  who  have  known  him  for  years  at  Stras- 
burg  and  in  the  army  tell  us,  we  have  every  reason  to  be 
satisfied  with  his  character. 

Deign  not  to  relax  the  kindness  you  feel  for  him  or  your 


182  MEMOIR   OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

efforts  to  contribute  to  his  happiness ;  you  will  thus  make 
mine ;  for  I  regard  as  such  his  establishment  and  the  presence 
of  my  children  about  me. 

Receive,  princess,  my  homage,  and  the  assurance  of  my 
respect,  etc. 

Hdl^ne,  however,  was  recalcitrant,  and  Prince  Charles  was 
certainly  very  cold,  as  appears  from  the  following  letter  in 
reply  to  those  of  his  aunt,  in  which  he  does  not  even  speak 
of  the  marriage:  — 

My  dear  Aunt,  —  Though  peace  is  made,  the  congress 
is  not  over ;  my  father  is  very  much  annoyed,  for  he  is  de- 
tained in  a  wretched  village  to  bore  himself  with  nothing 
to  do.  He  will  certainly  go  to  Paris  as  soon  as  he  can,  and 
I  envy  him  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you,  my  dear  aunt. 

Permit  me  to  assure  you  of  the  tender  and  respectful  sen- 
timents with  which  I  shall  be  all  my  life,  etc. 

The  marked  coldness  of  the  young  prince  is  easily  ex- 
plained by  the  fact  that  from  his  earliest  years  he  had  cher- 
ished a  deep  affection  for  a  friend  of  his  childhood,  which  was 
destined  to  be  never  wholly  effaced.  But  being  accustomed 
to  obey  his  mother  in  all  things,  the  thought  of  disobeying 
her  now  does  not  seem  to  have  crossed  his  mind.  The 
Princesse  de  Ligne  saw  in  H^lfene's  wealth,  and  her  isolation 
from  all  parentage,  which  would  naturally  make  her  adopt 
the  family  of  her  husband  as  her  own,  exactly  what  she 
wanted ;  and  to  bring  that  result  about,  she  chose  to  ignore 
the  secret  feelings  of  her  son. 

The  Congress  of  Teschen  being  over  at  last,  the  Prince  de 
Ligne  returned,  but  leisurely,  not  hurrying  himself.  He 
writes  to  the  Princesse  de  Ligne-Luxembourg  from  Vienna, 
as  follows :  — 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  183 

They  tell  me,  princess,  that  all  goes  well,  thanks  to  your 
kindness.  They  say  that  you  have  done  me  the  honour  to 
write  to  me.  I  have  not  received  your  letters.  They  tell 
me  also  that  I  ought  to  write  to  the  bishop.  I  beg  you  to 
send  him  this  letter. 

If  you  have  any  orders  to  give  me,  send  them  to  Munich, 
poste  restantc;  I  shall  receive  them  as  I  pass  through. 

All  the  information  that  I  obtain  from  Poland  appears  to 
conform  to  our  views. 

I  place  myself  at  your  feet,  princess,  and  beg  you  to  be 
convinced  that  my  gratitude  will  equal  my  tender  and 
respectful  attachment. 

Pkince  de  Ligne. 

As  for  Hdl^ne,  having  been  brought  at  last  to  consent  to 
the  marriage,  she  took  more  interest  in  the  promise  of  certain 
girandoles  (enormous  diamond  earrings  worn  with  court  dress) 
than  she  did  in  her  future  husband.  She  had  no  near  rela- 
tives in  Paris,  so  the  marriage  was  celebrated  at  the  Abbaye- 
aux-Bois,  to  the  great  joy  of  her  schoolmates.  In  her  journal 
she  relates  that  when  Prince  Charles  approached  her  he 
slipped  into  her  hand  his  wedding  present,  an  annuity  of  six 
hundred  pounds  sterling :  "  I  thanked  him,"  she  says,  "  w4th 
a  smile  and  a  pressure  of  the  hand,  —  the  first  I  had  granted 
him."  The  whole  family  returned  at  once  to  Beloeil,  wdiere 
the  bride  was  welcomed  with  one  of  the  prince's  ideal  fetes, 
ending  with  a  marvellous  illumination  of  the  gardens  and 
park,     "  It  is  not  night,"  said  H^lfeue,  "  it  is  silver  day." 

H^lfene  was  now  to  know  for  the  first  time  the  meaning 
of  family  life,  and  she  could  not  have  seen  it  more  favour- 
ably, for  the  Lignes  lived  together  in  an  unconstrained  in- 
timacy, blest  with  gayety  and  tenderness.  In  her  convent 
the  little   princess,   with   the   natural   selfishness  of  child- 


184  MEMOIR   OF   THE   TRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

hood,  had  thought  only  of  herself ;  she  was  now  to  see  the 
daily  little  sacrifices  of  brothers  and  sisters  which  a  look 
or  a  kiss  reward  and  make  easy.  Of  all  the  members  of 
the  family  her  father-in-law  and  her  sister-in-law  Christine 
were  the  ones  she  liked  best.  The  Princess  Christine, 
married  for  the  last  four  years  to  Prince  Clary,  was  the 
eldest  and  favourite  daughter  of  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  "  his 
masterpiece,"  he  called  her.  She  was  goodness,  grace,  and 
affability  personified.  Gifted  with  a  sound  judgment  and 
perfect  tact,  she  would  have  been  an  affectionate  and  charm- 
ing guide  for  her  young  sister-in-law  at  the  dawn  of  her 
womanhood,  if  that  office  had  not  been  already  taken  by  the 
princess-mother  who  was  very  jealous  of  the  right,  and  would 
have  yielded  it  to  no  one. 

The  Princesse  de  Ligne  played  a  most  important  part,  if 
not  in  the  heart  of  her  husband,  at  least  in  that  of  his  home. 
The  prince,  who  always  recognized  his  wife's  merits,  treated 
her  with  great  respect  and  the  utmost  friendliness.  "  My 
wife,"  he  said,  "  is  an  excellent  woman,  full  of  delicacy,  good- 
feeling  and  nobleness  ;  she  is  not  at  all  selfish.  Her  ill- 
humour  passes  quickly,  and  her  eyes  are  suffused  with  tears 
for  a  mere  trifle.  There  is  no  unpleasantness  about  her,  for 
she  has  an  excellent  heart."  Perhaps  it  was  not  very  diffi- 
cult for  the  prince  to  take  her  ill-humour  easily,  for  he  did 
not  suffer  from  it;  but  it  was  not  so  easy  for  the  children. 
It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  there  was  some  cause  for 
the  unevenness  of  her  temper,  for  not  only  was  her  husband 
openly  unfaithful  to  her,  but  he  was  constantly  entangling 
his  affairs,  and  in  spite  of  his  enormous  fortune  he  would 
often  have  been  seriously  embarrassed  had  it  not  been  for 
the  constant  and  judicious  care  of  the  princess  in  managing 
their  property,  and  in  balancing  expenses  with  revenue. 
However,  in  spite  of  the  rather  difficult  character   of  the 


I 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE   EIGNE.  185 

princess,  the  unalterable  good  temper  and  gayety  of  the 
prince  made  the  home  a  delightful  one ;  he  was,  and  this 
is  a  very  rare  thing,  as  amiable  there  as  he  was  in  society. 

The  life  at  Bela^il  when  the  prince  was  present  (during  his 
frequent  absences  the  princess  held  sterner  rule)  was  gay 
and  animated.  Visitors  abounded  ;  they  came  from  Brussels, 
Paris,  and  Vienna.  Not  only  did  the  prince  keep  open 
table  for  all  who  liked  to  come  there  and  pass  the  day,  but 
a  number  of  apartments  were  kept  ready  for  unexpected 
visitors,  who  often  remained  for  a  length  of  time.  Among 
these  guests  we  find  the  names  of  the  Viceroy  Prince  Charles 
de  Lorraine,  the  Prince  de  Conti,  the  Comte  d'Artois,  the 
Polignacs,  the  Chevalier  de  Boufflers,  the  Chevalier  de  I'lsle, 
a  very  intimate  friend  of  the  prmce,  who  figures  in  the 
correspondence  of  Mme.  du  Deffand  and  many  others. 

It  must  not  be  thought,  however,  that  the  life  of  the 
Lignes  was  all  amusement.  They  knew  how  to  mingle  pleas- 
ure with  serious  occupations.  Their  mornings  were  given  to 
study ;  music,  drawing,  art,  and  literature  occupied  them  each 
in  turn.  The  prince  had  hardly  risen  before  he  went,  book  in 
hand,  to  read  and  write  on  Flora's  isle,  or  else  to  direct  the 
various  works  about  his  property,  all  of  which  had  a  useful 
or  a  poetically  fantastic  object.  His  poetry  too,  or  —  what 
shall  we  call  it  ?  —  his  fatal  facility  for  scribbling  verses  on 
any  topic  must  have  taken  quite  a  serious  portion  of  his 
time.  There  are  quatrains  and  triolets  and  rondels,  and 
madrigals  and  pastorals  and  idylls,  —  usually  addressed  to 
friends  on  some  trivial  social  circumstance,  and  seldom 
of  greater  length  than  thirty  or  forty  lines.  The  prince 
took  great  satisfaction  and  put  all  his  vanity  (which  he 
might  justly  have  spent,  but  did  not,  upon  other  gifts) 
into  scattering  these  poems  broadcast  among  his  friends ; 
and   it   may   fairly   be   asked   whether   the   reputation   for 


186  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

frivolity  which  clung  to  him  all  his  life  was  not  caused  by 
this  rain  of  rubbish,  which  certamly  did  him  great  injus- 
tice. But  here  comes  in,  as  if  to  rebuke  this  judgment, 
the  affection  that  his  family  felt  for  him.  His  son  Charles, 
leaving,  in  his  most  affecting  will,  directions  for  placing  his 
bust  in  a  certain  room  at  BelcEil  with  the  portraits  of  his 
friends  around  it,  adds:  "I  beg  my  father  to  compose 
and  cause  to  be  engraved  on  the  pedestal  verses  which 
shall  tell  the  happiness  I  have  had  in  that  society ;  but  he 
must  not  praise  me ;  and  beneath  each  portrait  he  must 
write  the  portrait  in  verse  of  each  person."  Alas !  Beloeil 
was  no  longer  theirs  when  the  time  came  to  obey  the  will. 

The  prince's  printing-press  was  a  matter  of  great  interest 
to  him ;  the  books  that  bear  the  Belceil  stamp  are  now  much 
prized  by  bibhophiles.  A  complete  list  of  them  will  be 
found  in  M.  Lucien  Percy's  charming  memoir  of  the  Prin- 
cesse  H^lfene  Massalska,  from  which  this  account  is  taken. 
The  "  Coup  d'oeil  on  Beloeil "  was  first  printed  oa  this  press 
by  Charles  de  Ligne,  who  made  the  quaint  little  drawing  for 
its  titlepage,  which  is  on  the  last  page  of  the  Belceil  chapter 
in  Vol.  I.  of  the  present  edition.  He  printed  also  his  father's 
shorter  poems,  and  that  may  have  been  one  reason  why  they 
rained  so  profusely.  Here  is  one  which  gives  a  fair  idea 
of  the  best  of  the  prince's  verse ;  though  it  is  not  a  very 
close  translation. 

Walking  one  evening  in  the  woods  at  Beloeil  we  lost  our  way 
in  the  darkness.  My  daughter-in-law,  Helene  Massalska,  pointing 
to  a  star,  advised  us  to  follow  it,  which  we  did,  and  soon  reached 
our  home. 

We  wandered  far ; 
We  lost  our  way,  the  night  fell  fast ; 

Heaven  showed  a  single  star, 
And  lo  I  we  reached  our  home  at  last, 
Led  by  the  Star. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  187 

Was  it  the  star 
That  shone  before  the  Eastern  Kings, 

Or  Love's  resplendent  star  ? 
I  think,  remembering  certain  things, 
That  was  the  star. 

To  Helen's  side 
The  star  of  Love  will  surely  lead ; 

Follow  thy  heavenly  guide 
O  happy  lover  —  blest  indeed 

By  Helen's  side ! 

Prince  Charles  was  a  passionate  lover  of  paintings,  and  he 
found  time,  in  spite  of  his  other  studies  and  his  military  ser- 
vice, to  make  a  noble  collection  of  original  drawings  by  the 
great  masters,  both  old  and  modern.  He  was  a  fine  connois- 
seur and  drew  well  himself ;  he  even  undertook  to  engrave 
a  number  of  the  rare  drawings  of  his  collection,  and  for 
this  purpose  he  sent  for  the  famous  engraver  Bartsch,  who 
came  to  Beloeil  and  gave  him  lessons.  H^lfene  took  an  inter- 
est in  these  tastes  of  her  husband,  and  while  he  worked  she 
classified  the  drawings  (of  which  there  were  more  than  six 
thousand),  and  studied  under  his  direction  the  manner  of 
each  master,  so  that  she  was  soon  in  a  fair  way  to  become  an 
enlightened  amateur. 

These  intelligent  occupations  filled  the  mornings  until  the 
half-past  three  o'clock  dinner,  at  which  the  family  and  their 
numerous  guests,  with  the  officers  of  the  prmce's  regiment, 
assembled.  After  dinner  and  an  hour's  subsequent  siesta, 
the  company  resorted  to  the  gardens,  where  there  were 
bosquets  for  all,  in  which  to  walk  or  dream  or  group  as 
they  pleased.  Sometimes  they  went  for  long  excursions  on 
horseback  or  in  carriages  to  the  forest  of  Baudour,  and  in  the 
evenings,  with  lights  and  music,  they  floated  about  the  great 
lake  or  the  rivers  and  canals  of  the  park. 

Prince  Charles,  without  taking  an  active  part  in  the  gen- 


188  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

eral  amusements,  lent  himself  very  readily  to  enjoy  tliem ; 
but  his  mind  was  serious  and  wanted  food.  He  was  partic- 
ularly interested  in  all  scientific  discovery,  and  watched  at 
this  time,  with  great  attention,  the  progress  of  a  new  aerial 
invention  by  Charles  Pilatre  de  Rosier  and  the  Montgolfiers ; 
in  other  words,  the  makmg  and  working  of  balloons.  He 
made  two  ascensions  in  what  was  called  a  "  montgolfifere  " 
(on  the  principle  of  a  fire-balloon),  one  from  Paris  in  Novem- 
ber, 1783,  and  another  from  Lyons  in  the  following  year.  A 
few  months  later  he  constructed  a  balloon  at  his  own  ex- 
pense and  sent  it  up  successfully  from  Mons,  having  invited 
a  large  company  to  see  the  sight,  then  a  great  novelty,  among 
them  the  Due  and  Duchesse  d'Arenberg  and  many  distin- 
guished personages  from  the  Courts  of  Brussels  and  Ver- 
sailles, who  all  stayed  at  Beloeil  after  the  ascension. 

But  after  a  while  H^lfene,  who  liked  Flanders  so  long  as 
her  father-in-law  was  there  to  invent  fetes  and  take  her  to 
the  Brussels  Court  in  a  superb  gilt  carriage  with  panels  in 
vernis-Martin,  painted  by  the  greatest  artists  in  Vienna, 
began  to  pine  for  Paris  and  to  urge  the  gift  of  a  home  there. 
The  princess-mother  strongly  objected,  feeling  the  dangers 
for  a  pleasure-loving  and  beautiful  young  creature  whose 
husband,  being  in  the  Austrian  service,  might  be  forced  to 
leave  her  to  herself  for  months  together.  But  H^l^ne,  who 
said  of  herself  that  she  was  obstinate  as  the  pope's  mule, 
carried  the  day,  and  a  house  was  bought  for  her  in  the 
Chaussde  dAntin. 

The  next  step  was  a  presentation  at  Court  and  the  Prin- 
cesse  de  Ligne-Luxembourg  very  readily  agreed  to  introduce 
euch  a  charming  niece  ;  but  H^lfene  was  not  satisfied  unless 
she  could  appear  with  the  honours  of  war,  that  is  to 
say,  with  those  of  the  tahouret.  Now  this  distinction  was 
granted  only  to  certain  claims.     Those  of  a  grandee  of  Spain 


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MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  189 

sufficed  to  obtain  it.  The  Prince  de  Ligne  possessed  that 
dignity,  and  Hdlfene  persuaded  her  husband  to  ask  his  father 
to  cede  it  to  him.  It  was  no  shght  matter  to  make  the 
request,  and  the  young  prince  shrank  from  the  awkwardness 
of  doing  so,  especially  as  he  was  forced  to  couple  it  with 
another  for  money,  beautiful  toilets  and  jewels  and  furni- 
ture having  absorbed  the  revenues  of  the  young  couple. 
However,  unable  to  resist  the  wishes  of  his  wife,  Prince 
Charles  took  his  courage  in  both  hands  and  wrote  the  letter. 
Here  is  the  father's  characteristic  reply  :  — 

Versailles,  September  10. 

It  is  a  droll  thing  to  be  married,  is  it  not,  my  dear 
Charles  ?  But  you  will  come  out  of  it  all  right.  It  is  only 
fools  who  do  not  know  how  to  make  the  best  of  that  state. 
Meantime  you  have  a  pretty  little  wife,  who  will  do  you 
no  discredit,  and  can  be  your  mistress.  Though  you  and 
I  and  aU  of  us,  from  father  to  son,  have  borne  the  name 
of  Lamoral  (I  do  not  know  whether  he  was  a  saint  or  not), 
I  am  neither  moral,  moralist,  nor  moralizing  enough  to 
preach ;  but  I  laugh  at  those  who  do  not  believe  in  my 
morality,  which  consists  in  making  others  happy.  I  am 
sure  that  is  yours  also.  Without  having  a  regiment  of 
principles,  that  is  one  of  four  or  five  I  hold  for  the  second 
education.  As  for  the  first,  you  know  I  always  told  you 
that  to  be  a  liar  and  a  coward  would  make  me  die  of  grief. 
Assuredly,  my  boy,  you  learned  that  short  lesson  thoroughly. 

"Well,  now  let  us  go  to  business.     Take  as  much  money 

as   you   want,   or    as   my   men   of   business    have    or   can 

get ;  there   is  one   thing  settled.     Your   uncle,   the   Bishop 

of  Wilna,  who  thinks  that  you  and  I  might  be   kings  of 

Poland  some  day,  wants  us  to  be  naturalized ;   well,  we  will 

go  and  be  naturalized ;  another  thing  settled.     Our  aunt  in 
Ver.  7  Mem.  13 


190  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE   LIGNE. 

the  Tuileries  wants  your  wife  to  have  the  tabouret,  and  she 
wants  to  go  to  Versailles,  and  to  compass  that  I  am  to 
cede  you  the  grandeeship.  I  have  already  written  to  the 
King  of  Spam  and  the  minister ;  third  thing  settled  —  ex- 
cept that  I  shall  take  cold  getting  out  of  my  carriage  at 
the  gate  of  the  courtyard,  for  they  only  let  in  the  carriages 
of  grandees,  as  at  the  Luxembourg. 

What  annoys  me  is  to  hear  persons  of  intelligence  talk 
such  nonsense  as  they  do;  men  talking  of  war  who  never 
saw  anything  but  a  drill,  and  bad  at  that ;  women  calling 
themselves  disinterested  who,  by  dint  of  tormenting  the 
queen  (a  thousand  times  too  good  for  them)  and  the  minis- 
ters, have  contrived  to  snatch  pensions ;  and  other  women 
talking  sentiment  when  they  have  had  a  score  of  lovers.  And 
besides  these  the  plotters,  the  self-important,  the  malignant ! 
Sometimes  my  blood  boils  at  it  all,  but  ten  minutes  later  I 
forget  it.  This  life  of  Versailles  is  charming  to  me;  true 
chateau  life.  Adieu.  I  embrace  your  wife,  and  also  your 
mother  for  having  had  the  wit  to  make  me  a  Charles  like 
you. 

P.  S,  A  pro'pos,  I  have  it  in  my  head  to  make  a  bosquet 
for  my  Charles  with  a  fountain,  on  which  shall  be  carved 
the  name  of  H^lfene  and  a  cradle  for  the  babes.  As  soon 
as  I  can  leave  Versailles  I  shall  go  and  work  at  it  and  tell 
you,  tutti  quanti,  that  I  love  you  with  all  my  heart. 

But  the  result  of  the  life  in  Paris  was  disastrous.  H^lfene, 
received  everywhere,  at  Chantilly  by  the  Prince  de  Cond^, 
at  Petit-Bourg  by  the  Duchesse  de  Bourbon,  at  the  Temple 
by  the  Prince  de  Conti,  was  soon  in  a  whirl  of  pleasure 
and  coquetry,  a  whirl  in  which  the  more  solid  nature  of 
her  husband  made  him  feel,  and  seem,  out  of  place.  Before 
long  H^lene  compared  him  with  the  gay  young  men  about 


MEMOIK   OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  EIGNE.  191 

her ;  his  taste  for  study  and  the  rather  German  romanticism 
of  his  mind  were  indeed  a  contrast  to  their  hght  and  super- 
ficial volatihty.  With  the  thoughtlessness  of  her  years  and 
nature  H^lfene  decided  in  her  own  mind  that  he  bored  her, 
and  if  she  had  not  feared  to  offend  his  father,  she  would 
have  made  him  feel  it  even  more  than  she  did.  His  posi- 
tion in  Paris  was  a  difficult  one.  The  son  of  a  brilliant 
father  who  was  always  the  first  in  society  wherever  he 
went,  Charles  was  reduced  to  a  secondary  and  almost  an 
eclipsed  position.  This  would  have  cost  his  modest  nature 
nothing  in  itself,  but  he  was  soon  made  to  feel  that  it 
injured  him  in  the  eyes  of  his  wife.  He  had  not  loved 
H^lfene  when  he  married  her,  never  having  seen  her,  but 
he  soon  attached  himself  to  her  as  his  wife  with  a  feeling 
that  was  almost  paternal.  He  allowed  her  great  liberty 
at  Belceil,  seeking  all  the  while  to  develop  her  serious  tastes 
(always  liable  to  be  smothered  by  her  passion  for  pleasure), 
and  was  just  succeeding  when  the  three  years  in  Paris 
came  to  undo  his   work   utterly. 

It  was  during  the  last  of  those  years  that  his  father  went 
to  Russia  and  the  Crimea  with  the  Empress  Catherine  and 
Joseph  II.  Before  his  return  Mardchal  de  Lacy,  foreseeing 
the  Turkish  war,  recalled  Prince  Charles  from  Paris,  and 
about  the  same  time  the  Ligne  family  at  Beloeil,  alarmed 
by  the  outbreak  of  the  first  Belgian  revolution,  went  to 
their  Vienna  home  for  safety.  H^lfene,  who  disliked  Vienna 
and  its  society,  would  fain  have  stayed  in  Paris,  but  dared 
not  ask  her  husband  to  allow  it.  She  had  at  this  time  an 
infant  daughter,  named  Sidonie,  her  only  living  child, 
another  having  died  at  its  birth.  Late  in  the  winter  of 
1787,  Charles  de  Ligne  was  ordered  to  his  post  as  major 
of  engineers  with  the  army  in  Moldavia,  and  we  have 
already  seen   how  in  April,  1788,  he  distinguished  himself 


192  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

at  Sabacz.  He  had  scarcely  left  Vienna  before  his  wife 
wrote  to  ask  his  permission  to  visit  her  uncle,  the  Prince- 
Bishop,  in  Warsaw,  alleging  that  important  business  re- 
quired lier  presence  to  settle  it.  He  gave  the  permission 
readily,  on  condition  that  she  would  leave  the  little  Sidonie 
with  its  grandmother.  H^l^ne  started  at  once  and  never 
returned,  nor  did  she  communicate  in  any  way  with  the 
Ligne  family ;  she  never  saw  her  husband  again,  or  her 
daughter  until  the  latter  was  a  woman  and  married.  The 
story  of  the  rest  of  her  life,  wliich  does  not  enter  into  this 
history,  is  one  of  tragic  passion,  and  is  well  worth  reading 
in  the  memoir  already  mentioned.  It  is  enough  to  say 
here  that  on  the  death  of  Prince  Charles  she  married  Comte 
Vincent  Potocki,  to  whom  she  was  passionately  attached, 
but  whose  love  for  her  seems  to  have  been  more  mercenary 
than  sincere. 

After  receiving  Joseph  II.'s  letter  on  the  taking  of  Sabacz, 
the  Prince  de  Ligne  writes  to  his  son  as  follows : 

Elisabeth-Goeod,  May  12,  1788. 

What  shall  I  say  to  you,  my  dear  Charles,  that  you  do  not 
know  already  as  to  what  I  have  felt  on  receiving  a  letter 
from  his  Majesty  full  of  kindness  and  grace  ?  That  letter  is 
worth  more  than  all  the  parchments,  title-deeds,  diplomas, 
and  patents  —  food  for  rats  !  In  it  there  are  expressions  so 
touching  for  both  of  us  that  although  I  am  getting  rather 
too  big  to  cry,  it  is  impossible  to  prevent  it  every  time  that 
I  read  those  words.  All  the  generals  and  officers,  Circassians, 
Zaporoguians,  Tartars,  Germans,  Eussians,  Cossacks,  etc., 
have  come  in  crowds  to  say  delightful  things  to  me  which  I 
shall  never  forget. 

The  father  and  tenderest  friend  of  my  Charles  is  assuredly 
much  touched  by  the  honour  that  you  have  done  yourself, 


MEMOIR  OF   THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  193 

but  General  de  Ligne  has  suffered  devilishly.  Ah !  my 
boy,  imagine  what  a  moment  it  would  have  been  for  both 
of  us  could  I  have  been  the  first  whom  you  helped  up  the 
parapet  which  you  yourself  had  been  the  first  to  mount ! 

Good  God !  what  it  is  to  be  so  far  away !  I  who  could  have 
cooUy  seen  you  shot  in  the  arm  in  Bavaria,  I  am  anxious  as 
a  woman  now.  .  .  .  Don't  you  think  now,  my  Charles,  that 
I  was  right  to  want  you  in  the  engineers  ?  The  engineer 
corps  wanted  you,  I  know  that.  But  are  you  sure  you  are 
not  a  trifle  wounded  and  will  not  teU  me  ?  Never  let  a 
courier  of  his  Majesty  start  without  a  letter  to  me. 

During  the  next  campaign,  when  the  Prince  de  Ligne  re- 
turned to  the  Austrian  armies  and  commanded  before  Bel- 
grade, Prince  Charles,  as  we  know,  was  with  his  father. 
After  the  convention  which  Austria  signed  with  Prussia  at 
Eeichenbach  to  conclude  her  part  in  the  Turkish  war,  Prince 
Charles,  foreseeing  inaction,  asked  and  obtained  permission 
to  enter  the  Eussian  service,  to  the  great  regret  of  his  father. 
He  made  the  campaign  in  Bessarabia  under  the  orders  of 
General  Suvaroff,  and  was  specially  appointed  by  him  to 
direct  a  part  of  the  operations  of  the  too  famous  siege  of 
Ismail.  He  was  the  first,  as  at  Sabacz,  to  mount  the  parapet, 
after  an  assault  of  ten  hours,  followed,  as  volunteers,  by  the 
Due  de  Eichelieu,  Comte  Eoger  de  Damas,  the  Comte  de 
Langeron,  and  others. 

The  joy  of  the  Empress  Catherine  on  receiving  the  news 
of  the  taking  of  Ismail  was  very  great.  Her  first  character- 
istic thought,  as  usual,  was  to  reward  the  victors.  She  sent 
Prince  Charles,  among  others,  the  cross  of  her  Order  Saint- 
George  with  the  following  letter:  — 


194  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

To  Prince  Charles  de  Ligne. 

January,  1791. 

Monsieur  le  Prince  de  Ligne  :  It  is  useless  to  tell  me 
that  all  men  are  equal  when  experience  shows  me  daily  that 
they  are  not,  and  that  some  are  strong  and  some  are  weak. 
But  the  fact  which  gives  me  still  greater  conviction  is  that 
I  know  races  in  which  valour  and  military  virtues  are  per- 
petuated from  father  to  son.  Such  is  yours,  Monsieur  le 
Prince  de  Ligne.  Born  of  a  father  who  is  as  brave  as  he  is 
amiable  and  full  of  knowledge,  you  have  inherited  his  fortu- 
nate gifts,  you  have  made  them  shine  in  the  eyes  of  those 
illustrious  warriors  with  whom  you  shared  the  dangers  of 
mounting,  without  an  open  trench,  without  a  battered  breach, 
the  formidable  fortress  of  Ismail,  where  a  whole  army  of  ene- 
mies to  Christian  men  were  awaiting  you.  The  corps  d'armee 
which  took  the  place  was  sniaU  in  number,  but  great  in  zeal 
and  courage. 

The  Order  of  Saint-George,  having  for  the  basis  of  its 
statutes  the  laws  of  honour  and  valour, — precious  synonyms 
to  heroic  ears,  —  is  always  by  its  institution  eager  to  count 
among  its  valiant  knights  whoever  gives  proof  of  those  mili- 
tary virtues.  Eeceive,  Monsieur  le  Prince  de  Ligne,  the  cross 
of  Saint-George  and  the  cordon  which  I  send  you.  You  will 
wear  it,  if  you  please,  around  your  neck,  in  token  of  your 
exploits  in  my  service.  Eeceive  them  also  as  a  mark  of  my 
esteem  and  affection  ;  which  your  actions  have  won  you,  and 
your  honourable  wound  deserves  [he  was  shot  in  the  leg  but 
paid  no  attention  to  it  during  the  assault].  Continue  to  give 
to  the  world  an  example,  both  useful  and  necessary  in  these 
days,  of  virtues  perpetuated  in  illustrious  races  from  father 
to  son  long  faithful  to  their  legitimate  sovereign.  On  which 
I  pray  God  to  preserve  you  in  His  most  holy  keeping. 

Catherine. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  195 

Immediately  after  the  taking  of  Ismail  the  empress  began 
negotiations  very  secretly  with  the  Turks.  Prince  Charles, 
cognizant  of  what  was  going  on,  asked  and  obtained  leave 
of  absence.  He  announced  his  return  to  his  father,  who 
replies :  — 

Vienna,  February,  1791. 

My  God !  my  Charles !  dear  Charles  !  you  are  coming 
back  to  me  !  I  cannot  recover  myself.  I  don't  know  how 
I  can  embrace  you,  or  where  your  great  nose  will  go,  or 
where  I  can  ferret  mine.  I  must  kiss  that  wounded  knee ; 
perhaps  on  my  knees  before  you  —  or  before  Heaven. 

The  Emperor  Leopold  had  granted,  December  2,  1790, 
an  amnesty  to  the  Belgian  revolutionaries,  and  before  long 
all  trace  of  the  late  troubles  disappeared.  After  remaining 
in  Vienna  long  enough  to  rejoice  in  the  return  of  her  son, 
the  Princesse  de  Ligne  went  back  to  Belceil  to  repair  the 
injury  done  to  their  houses  and  estates,  which  had  been 
abandoned  to  the  revolutionists  since  1787.  Early  in  1791 
the  Prince  de  Ligne,  accompanied  by  his  son,  made  his  grand 
entry  into  Mons  as  hereditary  Seneschal  and  Governor  of 
Hainault,  the  particulars  of  which  we  know  already.  The 
Lignes  passed  the  next  summer  at  Belceil,  happy  in  being 
once  more  united  and  tranquil  in  the  place  they  loved  so 
well,  with  little  thought  that  never  again  would  they  be 
there  together.  It  was  then  that  the  father  put  up  his 
obelisk  "  to  my  dear  Charles  for  Sabacz  and  Ismail." 

Meantime  the  terrible  march  of  the  French  EevoluLion 
was  advancing,  and  the  emigres  were  beginning  to  collect  in 
the  Low  Countries.  At  first  they  clung  about  the  border 
land,  and  it  was  not  till  all  hope  of  a  quick  return  was  lost 
that  they  went  to  Vienna,  London,  Poland,  and  Russia. 

Prince  Charles  sohcited  and   obtained  his  return  to  the 


196  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

Austrian  army  with  the  rank  of  colonel  of  engineers.  He 
was  appointed  in  February,  1792,  to  the  army  corps  of 
General  Clerfayt ;  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Austrians 
being  Duke  Albert  of  Saxe-Teschen  (the  husband  of  the 
Archduchess  Christina),  whose  headquarters  were  at  Mons. 

The  Emperor  Leopold  died  in  March.  An  ancient  custom, 
descending  from  the  time  of  Charles  V.,  required  that  each 
new  emperor  should  be  inaugurated  and  take  the  oaths  as 
Count  of  Hainault  in  the  cathedral  church  of  Mons.  This 
was  done  by  proxy,  and  Francis  II.  appointed  Charles  de 
Ligne  to  represent  him.  It  happened  that  the  latter,  being 
engaged  with  the  enemy  all  night,  arrived  in  Mons  at  full 
gallop,  black  with  powder  and  heated  with  the  combat,  only 
just  in  time  to  don  a  grand  court  uniform  and  jump  into  his 
carriage  to  head  the  procession  and  go  through  the  ceremony. 
The  next  morning  he  was  back  in  camp,  glad  to  have  ended 
a  role  that  was  out  of  keeping  with  his  simple  modesty. 

Three  months  went  by  in  galling  inaction.  July  25  the 
Duke  of  Brunswick,  commander-in-chief  of  the  allied  armies 
of  Prussia  and  Austria,  issued  his  well-known  manifesto. 
In  September,  the  month  of  the  massacres,  the  French 
army  occupied  Nice  and  Chamb^ry ;  and  Dumouriez's  victory 
at  Jemmapes,  November  6,  was  followed  immediately  by 
the  French  occupation  of  Belgium. 

Meantime  it  was  in  September  that  Dumouriez  determined 
to  prevent  the  Allied  Army  from  gaining  possession  of  the 
defiles  of  the  Argonne.  He  occupied  all  the  principal  pas- 
sages save  one,  the  Croix  aux  Bois,  which  was  thought  to 
be  so  insignificant  that  he  defended  it  with  only  two  bat- 
talions of  infantry  and  a  squadron  of  horse.  The  Duke  of 
Brunswick  saw  an  opportunity  of  carrying  the  place,  and 
General  Clerfayt  intrusted  the  attack  to  Prince  Charles. 
Dumouriez,  informed  of  the  danger,  sent  up  reinforcements. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  197 

Six  times  was  the  passage  taken  by  the  French  and  retaken 
by  the  Austrians.  The  young  prince  saw  that  it  was  neces- 
sary a,t  any  cost  to  capture  a  murderous  battery  and  he 
headed  the  charge.  Eight  men  were  killed  in  the  front  rank 
and  he,  the  ninth,  rushed  forward  and  fell  dead  with  a 
bullet  through  his  brain,  September  14,  1792. 

His  father's  anguish  was  unspeakable.  The  body  was 
taken  to  Mons,  but  it  chanced  that  the  prince  had  just  left 
the  town,  being  summoned  to  Vienna.  In  his  memoir  he 
briefly  tells  how  Mar^chal  de  Lacy  broke  the  truth  to  him 
and  his  inmost  heart  at  the  same  time.  As  long  as  he 
lived  he  could  never  speak  of  his  son  without  tears. 

"  Alas  !  I  would  not  comprehend  Mardchal  de  Lacy  when 
he  said  to  me  that  dreadful  word.  Dead  ;  or  perhaps  I  could 
not.  I  fell  unconscious,  and  he  took  me  in  his  arms.  I 
still  see  the  place  where  he  told  me  that  my  Charles  was 
killed.  I  see  my  poor  Charles  himself  as  he  brought  me 
daily,  at  the  same  hour,  his  good  and  blessed  face  to  lay  it 
against  mine.  Fifteen  days  earlier  I  had  dreamed  he  was 
shot  through  the  head,  and  had  fallen  from  his  horse,  dead. 
I  was  anxious  for  five  or  six  days,  and  then,  because  we 
always  treat  as  weakness  what  is  often  a  warning,  or  perhaps 
an  instinct  of  nature  when  there  is  affinity  in  the  blood,  I 
drove  away  the  dreadful  thought,  which  was  only  too  surely 
verified." 

On  hearing  of  this  cruel  loss  the  empress  wrote  to  the 
Prince  de  Ligne  immediately. 

September  30,  1792. 

Monsieur  le  Prince  de  Ligne,  —  Among  the  many 
and  divers  misfortunes  of  this  summer,  or  rather  of  the 
past  year  [Prince  Potemkin  had  died  suddenly  in  Octo- 
ber, 1791],  one  of  those  which  have  caused  me  the  most 
pain,  which  has  wrung  my  heart  doubly,  triply,  is  the  loss 


198  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

you  deplore.  If  by  the  share  that  I  take  in  this  sad  event 
you  can  be  comforted,  be  assured  that  my  regret  equals 
the  esteem  which  the  noble  qualities  and  the  valorous 
actions  of  Prince  Charles,  your  worthy  son,  inspired  in  me. 
The  country  ought  to  regret  in  him  one  of  its  true  defenders. 
That  poor  Germany  is  in  greater  need  of  heroes  firm  and  un- 
faltering in  their  prmciples  than  of  timid  or  crafty  negotia- 
tors, for  she  runs  a  risk  of  being  engulfed  in  a  whirlpool  of 
incalculable  woes. 

What  astonishes  me  is  that  neither  floods,  bombshells,  nor 
famine  of  supphes  have  prevented  Custine,  Dumouriez,  Mon- 
tesquieu and  gang  from  gomg  where  they  choose.  How 
comes  it  that  it  rains  for  the  one  side  and  not  for  the  other  ? 
Why  are  not  both  sides  mired  ?  Grass  and  wheat  are  grow- 
ing beneath  the  feet  of  the  rebels,  while  those  who  fight  them 
die  of  hunger.  These  are  enigmas  of  which  the  Mercury  of 
the  coming  month  should  give  us  the  solution,  or  the  method. 
Alasl  alas !  alas ! 

I  have  a  consolation  very  miserable  for  one  who  truly 
cares  for  a  great  and  noble  cause :  it  is  that  they  misconstrued 
and  went  against  all  that  I  proposed,  with  the  result  we  see. 
My  heart  bleeds  when  I  see  the  princes  of  the  house  of 
Bourbon  and  the  French  nobles  abandoned  as  the  reward 
of  their  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  kings,  and  dying  of 
liunger  and  misery  without  shelter  and  without  resources. 
That  example  is  not  encouraging,  assuredly. 

In  the  midst  of  this  happy  family  life  of  the  Prince  de 
Ligne,  —  for  it  was  happy  even  after  the  fall  of  this  terrible 
blow,  because  it  was  without  bitterness,  —  a  tragic  little  story 
is  revealed,  very  faintly  and  delicately,  in  his  son's  last  will. 
It  may  be  told  here  because  it  can  now  have  no  effect  but 
that  of  moving  us  to  tender  pity  for  those  whom  it  concerns. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  199 

Among  the  young  women  of  Vienna  was  the  Comtesse 
Kinski,  born  Theresa  Dietrichstein,  a  connection  of  Prince 
Charles,  with  whom  he  liad  been  intimate  from  childhood. 
She  was  very  beautiful,  with  an  intelKgent  mind  and  a  good 
heart.  Her  brother,  Comte  Frangois  Dietrichstein,  was  also 
the  intimate  friend  of  Prince  Charles ;  in  fact,  the  two  had 
been  brought  up  together.  The  parents  of  Comtesse  Theresa 
and  of  Comte  Kinski  arranged  the  marriage  of  their  children 
without  consulting  them,  and  they  had  never  seen  each  other 
when  Comte  Kinski,  who  was  quartered  in  Hungaiy,  was 
brought  to  Vienna  in  time  only  for  the  marriage.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  ceremony  he  took  his  wife  to  their  house, 
kissed  her  hand,  and  said :  "  Madame,  we  have  obeyed  our 
parents.  I  leave  you  with  regret ;  but  I  must  inform  3'ou 
that  I  have  long  been  attached  to  another  woman,  without 
whom  I  cannot  live.  I  go  to  rejoin  her."  His  post-chaise 
was  ready  and  he  left  her.  A  hard  position ;  neither  maid, 
nor  wife,  nor  widow,  with  a  lifetime  before  her. 

If,  during  the  few  months  that  Prince  Charles  was  m 
Vienna,  between  his  unfortunate  residence  in  Paris  and  his 
departure  for  the  army  in  Moldavia,  his  life-long  affection 
for  his  childhood's  friend  (now  in  so  cruel  a  position  —  his 
own  heart  wounded  and  mortified)  brought  about  a  secret  tie 
between  them,  no  sign  of  it  appeared  upon  the  surface ;  the 
conventions  of  social  life  were  strictly  observed.  But  his 
will,  written  shortly  before  his  death  and  beginning,  "  As  I 
shall  probably  be  killed,"  contains  the  following  clauses :  — 

"  I  will  that  my  heart  be  folded  in  a  handkerchief  worn 
by  her  I  love,  whom  I  beg  to  give  it  for  this  purpose.  As 
she  has  always  had  my  heart  throughout  my  life,  I  wish  that 
after  my  death  it  may  be  as  content  as  a  heart  can  be  apart 
from  her  whom  it  treasures ;  that  is  to  say,  with  something 
that  belonged  to  her.     I  beg  her  to  embroider  in  one  corner 


200  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

of  the  handkerchief  the  word,  Alone;  in  the  second,  Ten- 
derness delightful ;  in  the  third.  Indissoluble  ;  in  the 
fourth,  September  21,  1787,  and  the  date  of  my  death. 

"  I.  All  my  collection  of  engravings  and  of  original  draw- 
ings to  be  sold  to  the  highest  bidder.  ...  If  one  of  my  family 
desires  to  possess  it,  he  can  take  it  at  a  price  not  less  than  one 
hundred  thousand  German  florins ;  for  the  drawings  being  rec- 
ognized as  originals  and  there  being  nothing  mediocre  in  this 
collection,  it  is  really  priceless.  This  sum,  which  is  wholly 
mine  and  independent  of  the  inheritance  my  heirs  should  have, 
and  which  I  leave  to  them  according  to  law,  is  to  be  divided 
thus :  eighty  thousand  florins  in  trust  for  my  natural  daugh- 
ter Christine.  ...  I  make  my  sister  Christine  her  guardian ; 
in  default  of  my  sister  Christine,  I  appoint  Mme.  la  Comtesse 
Theresa  Dietrichstein,  formerly  married  to  Comte  Kinski.  I 
also  bequeath  to  the  little  Christine  the  portrait  of  her 
mother  by  Leclerc  and  the  chain  I  wear  round  my  neck, 
which  has  upon  its  hasp  the  words  '  These  links  [liens]  are 
dear.'  I  beg  her  never  to  part  with  it  but  to  wear  it  in 
memory  of  me  and  of  the  person  who  gave  it  to  me." 

"  VII.  I  bequeath  to  Madame  de  Kinski,  nee  Dietrichstein, 
all  the  framed  engravings  which  I  have  in  my  apartments  at 
Beloeil,  also  the  chain  that  I  wear  round  my  neck,  which 
came  to  me  from  her  best  friend  ;  it  is  for  this  reason  that  I 
venture  to  ask  her  to  wear  it  all  the  rest  of  her  life,  remem- 
bering that  it  came  from  a  person  whose  whole  happiness 
was  in  that  of  Madame  de  Kinski,  of  which  I  am  so  con- 
vinced that  I  can  assure  her  of  it." 

This  last  clause  is  among  twelve  others,  making  bequests 
of  various  treasured  things,  so  that  it  does  not  stand  out 
markedly. 

No  wonder  that  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  remembering  his  own 
marriage  (though  that  was  not  unhappy),  and  the  mournful 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  201 

marriages  of  his  sou  and  his  son's  dearest,  should  declaim, 
as  he  does  in  his  "  Scattered  Thoughts,"  against  the  system 
of  conventional  unions. 

A  few  short  weeks  and  the  prince  and  his  family,  lately  so 
happy,  were  to  see  their  beautiful  home  and  their  splendid 
fortune  lost  to  them.  The  French  armies  occupied  Belgium 
and  the  property  of  the  prince  was  confiscated.  Coming  at 
the  time  it  did  the  blow  fell  almost  lightly.  The  news 
reached  him  in  Vienna.  "  Who  will  pay  my  debts  ? "  he  said. 
and  then  he  talked  of  other  things. 

He  never  saw  his  Bela'il  again,  but  he  did  not  pine  for  it ; 
he  made  himself  a  little  "  perch  "  elsewhere,  and  was  happy 
and  still  made  others  happy  ;  the  one  great  blow  of  his  life 
appears  to  have  dulled  the  sense  of  other  pain.  There  is  not 
a  word  in  his  writings  or  in  the  records  of  other  persons  to 
show  that  he  ever  gave  his  changed  fortunes  a  regretful 
thought.  He  grieves  that  he  was  not  employed  in  the 
army ;  but  those  regrets  would  have  been  as  keen,  perhaps 
more  so,  had  he  still  possessed  the  lavish  means  of  other 
days.  He  had  the  art  of  happiness,  and  he  practised  it, 
although  his  greatest  joy  was  taken  from  him. 


IX. 

1793-1800. 
■"  REFUGE  "  IN  VIENNA  :  THE  EMPRESS  CATHERINE. 

When  Belgium  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French  after 
the  battle  of  Jemmapes,  the  Prince  de  Ligne  shuddered  lest 
Beloeil  should  be  pillaged,  and  all  the  relics  of  his  son,  and  the 
obelisk  raised  to  him  in  the  gardens,  destroyed.  Fortunately 
the  commander  of  the  detachment  sent  to  occupy  the  chateau 
was  a  former  quartermaster  in  the  prince's  regiment,  now  a 
captain  in  the  French  army.  He  had  but  one  thought,  that 
the  chateau  and  estate  of  his  old  general  should  be  religiously 
protected.  When  the  Prince  of  Coburg  recovered  Brussels 
after  the  battle  of  Neerwinden,  the  Prince  de  Ligne  returned 
to  Beloeil,  but  only  for  a  very  short  time.  Belgium  was  re- 
taken by  the  French  in  July,  1794,  and  the  prince,  now  a 
poor  man,  settled  permanently  in  Vienna,  exchanging  his 
former  splendour  for  a  little  house  on  the  ramparts,  which  he 
called  his  "  parrot's  perch,"  it  having  but  one  room  on  each 
floor  ;  the  first  a  dining-room,  the  second  a  salon,  the  third  a 
library,  which  was  also  his  bedroom. 

His  daughters,  the  Princesse  Clary,  the  Comtesse  Palffy,  the 
Baronne  Spiegel  (Flore)  had  their  own  homes  in  Vienna,  but 
were  always  in  attendance  on  their  father.  The  Princesse 
Clary  (Christine),  accepting  the  bequest  of  her  brother 
Charles,  had  tenderly  brought  up  his  daughter,  who  was 
legitimatized  by  the  Ligne  family  immediately  after  his 
death,  and  bore  their  name,  but  without  a  title.  She  grew 
up  a  sweet  young  girl,  afi'ectionate,  and  the  idol  of  her  grand- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  203 

father ;  the  family  called  her  Titine,  and  she  married,  after 
the  prince's  death,  Comte  Maurice  O'Donnell,  the  son  of  one 
of  his  oldest  friends.  Sidonie,  the  daughter  of  Prince  Charles 
and  H^l^ue  Massalska,  was  brought  up  with  Titine,  and 
affection  was  strong  between  them,  although  they  did  not 
know  of  their  real  relationship.  H^lfene,  who  had  married  in 
Warsaw  Comte  Vincent  Potocki  four  months  after  the  death 
of  Prince  Charles,  made  no  inquiries  for  the  daughter  she 
had  abandoned  until  she  lost  her  other  children,  when,  for 
family  reasons,  she  proposed  and  carried  out  a  marriage  be- 
tween Sidonie  and  the  son  of  Comte  Vincent  by  a  former 
wife,  who  was  still  living,  and  whom  the  count  remarried  on 
H^l^ne's  death.  She  did  not  see  her  daughter  until  after  the 
marriage  had  taken  place.  The  whole  history  is  a  painful 
one  and  involves  details  wliich  have  no  place  in  a  memoir  of 
the  Prince  de  Ligne,  although  at  moments  the  wisdom  and 
kindliness  of  his  conduct  appear  very  brightly.  It  says  much 
for  him  and  for  his  family  that  Sidonie  was  brought  up  to 
love  and  respect  her  mother,  to  whom  she  says,  in  the  first 
letter  that  she  wrote  to  her  :  "  All  that  I  have  heard  of  you 
increases  my  desire  to  know  you ;  my  aunt  Clary  shares  my 
wish  and  bids  me  say  that  had  she  known  you  were  in  Dres- 
den she  would  have  gone  to  see  you.  Do  contrive,  my  dear 
mamma,  to  let  me  know  you  soon.  It  is  terrible  to  have 
reached  the  age  of  nineteen  without  knowing  a  mother, 
especially  when  I  know  that  that  mother  is  so  kind,  so 
amiable,  and  possesses  all  good  qualities.  My  first  and  last 
thought  daily  is  of  you." 

It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  out  of  this  strange  and  at 
first  sight  unnatural  marriage  came  happiness.  The  young 
people  loved  each  other.  Here  is  a  little  picture  which 
Comte  Francis  Potocki  drew  of  his  new  family  in  a  letter 
to  a  friend  written  after  his  marriage :  — 


204  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

"The  prince  is  tall  and  strong,  his  figure  majestic,  his 
manners  noble  and  full  of  ease.  His  white  hair,  curling  and 
slightly  powdered,  surrounds  his  handsome  face,  which  is 
scarcely  wrinkled.  He  has  a  charming  smile  with  an  ex- 
pression of  kindliness  mingled  with  a  little  mischief  and 
shrewdness.  His  mouth  is  large  and  gracious ;  his  broad, 
intelhgent  forehead  expresses  serenity.  His  glance  is  quick  ; 
sometimes  his  eyes  flash  fire ;  everything  about  him  indicates 
frankness.  He  is  not  loved,  he  is  adored  by  his  friends. 
His  family  have  a  veritable  worship  for  him ;  no  one  escapes 
the  fascination  of  his  person  and  his  mind.  He  always 
wears  the  uniform  of  the  Captain  of  Trabans  [the  highest 
military  post  about  the  Court],  and  on  his  breast  the  cordon 
of  Maria-Theresa  with  the  Order  of  the  Golden  Fleece. 

"  The  Princesse  de  Ligne  has  been  extremely  beautiful. 
She  was  married  very  young  to  the  prince,  to  whom  she 
has  given  the  following  children  :  Prince  Charles,  Christine, 
Princess  Clary,  Prince  Louis,  Euph^mie,  Comtesse  Jean 
Palffy,  and  Flore,  who  is  soon  to  marry  Baron  Spiegel,  an 
officer  highly  thought  of  in  the  Austrian  service.  The 
Princesse  de  Ligne  accustomed  herself  to  her  husband's 
infidehties,  and  was  led  to  attach  herself  elsewhere  ;  but  she 
has  never  had  more  than  that  one  inclination,  and  in  that  the 

senses  have  never  had  a  part.     The  prince  loves  Comte , 

and  treats  him  as  his  nearest  friend,  certain,  as  he  surely 
is,  of  the  perfect  innocence  of  his  relations  to  his  wife." 

Prince  Louis  de  Ligne,  the  second  son,  here  mentioned, 
was  tenderly  beloved  by  his  father,  but  circumstances  took 
him  while  still  very  young  from  the  prince's  side.  Queen 
Marie-Antoinette  put  him,  though  a  mere  child,  into  her 
own  regiment  called  the  "  Pioyal-Allemand."  This  was 
done  to  oblige  his  father,  her  friend,  or  at  least  it  would 
seem  so  from  the  following  letter :  — 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  205 

H.  M.  Queen  Marie-Antoincttc  to  the  JEJmpress 
Maria  Tlieresa. 

Versailles,  July  20,  1776. 

The  Prince  de  Ligne  makes  me  a  request  about  which  I 
cannot  refuse  to  speak  to  my  dear  mamma.  He  has  much 
property  in  France  and  has  just  won  a  lawsuit  which  secures 
to  him  some  that  was  contested.  He  fears,  with  reason, 
that  he  may  not  be  master  of  enjoying  it  out  of  France. 
He  desires  to  estabhsh  his  second  son  in  France ;  but  be- 
fore allowing  himself  to  do  so,  he  feels  that  he  ought  to 
have  the  permission  of  my  dear  mamma;  and  for  that  he 
has  begged  me  to  ask  you.  If  you  will  have  the  kindness 
to  permit  it  I  will  put  the  child  into  my  regiment,  until 
better  can  be  done  for  him. 

Thus  Prince  Louis'  military  career  was  widely  different 
from  that  of  his  brother.  His  promotion  was  rapid.  He 
entered  the  Orlt^ans  regiment,  and  the  fatal  10th  of  August 
found  him  a  lieutenant-colonel  on  Dumouriez's  staff.  He 
passed  at  once  with  the  Due  de  Chartres  into  the  Austrian 
army,  and  became  aide-de-camp  to  General  Clerfayt.  He 
distinguished  himself  at  the  battle  of  Jemmapes,  where  he 
had  two  horses  killed  under  him,  and  was  made  captain  in 
his  father's  regiment  of  grenadiers  by  the  Archduke  John, 
who  had  seen  him,  with  his  own  eyes,  dash  into  the  French 
lines  to  recover  the  flag  of  his  company  which  he  brought 
back  in  safety. 

At  the  battle  of  Hohenlinden,  December,  1800,  he  com- 
manded the  regiment  of  the  Archduke  John  and  behaved 
in  a  most  intrepid  manner.  At  the  head  of  a  battalion  of 
grenadiers,  whom  he  inspired  by  his  own  example,  he  tried 

to  cut   his    way   through  a  liody  of  the  enemy;  but  was 
Ver.  7  Mem.  14 


206  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

wounded  in  two  places,  left  for  dead,  and  taken  prisoner. 
He  was  about  to  be  shot  as  a  deserter  when  General  Ney 
saved  his  hfe  by  writing  his  name  as  Eugene  instead  of 
Louis,  which  wilful  blunder  prevented  the  authorities  from 
establishing  his  identity.  He  was  set  at  Uberty  in  January, 
1801,  and  joined  his  family  in  Vienna  a  month  later.  He 
was  his  mother's  favourite  child,  and  strongly  resembled 
her,  being  very  handsome.  He  was  married  to  the  Comtesse 
van  der  Noot  de  Duras,  by  whom  he  had  three  children, 
only  one  of  whom  survived.  This  son,  named  Eugene  in 
memory  of  the  circumstance  that  saved  his  father's  life, 
was  the  grandfather  of  the  present  Prince  de  Ligne  and 
died  in  1880,  having  been  ambassador  to  France  and  presi- 
dent of  the  Belgian  senate.  In  1803  Bonaparte,  then  First 
Consul,  removed  the  sequestration  placed  in  1793  on  the 
estates  of  the  house  of  Ligne;  but  the  prince,  having 
formerly  owned  property  in  France,  was  considered  as  an 
emigre.  He  therefore  formally  renounced  his  property  in 
the  Low  Countries  in  favour  of  his  son  Louis,  to  whom  the 
estates  were  then  restored  by  the  First  Consul,  on  condition 
of  his  becoming  a  citizen  of  France  (his  father  remaining 
a  German  prince),  and  binding  himself  to  free  Beloeil  and 
its  dependent  properties  from  the  debts  charged  upon  it. 
Prince  Louis  died  in  1812,  more  than  two  years  before  his 
father,  and  Belceil,  around  which  so  many  poetical  and 
historical  memories  cluster,  is  still  the  ancestral  home  of  the 
family. 

Let  us  now  return  to  the  prince  himself.  Here  is  a  letter 
to  a  former  secretary  (for  the  days  are  gone  when  secretaries 
and  adjutants  abounded),  replying  to  some  affectionate  in- 
quiries as  to  how  matters  were  going  with  him. 

"  I  never  used  to  ask  you,  any  of  you,  how  my  affairs  were 
going  in  the  olden  time,  and  I  never  knew.     But  you  ask 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE.  207 

me  how  they  go,  and  I  have  come  to  know  about  them  now. 
Those  balls  of  three  or  four  hundred  people,  my  riding-school, 
my  gardens,  the  masquerades,  the  scenery,  decorations,  and 
costumes  of  my  theatre,  my  opera  of  the  Samnites,  suppers 
for  fifty,  dinners  for  four  hundred  French  officers  when  they 
came  to  see  me  manceuvre  my  regiment  —  all  that  never 
made  me  ask  what  it  cost.  What  did  I  care  for  a  few  hun- 
dred ducats  more  or  less  if  they  did  honour  to  Mons,  or 
showed  affection  to  the  Comte  d'Artois,  I  may  say  to  the 
queen,  and  respect  to  the  king  ? 

"  But  no'w  I  catch  myself  telling  my  people,  if  by  chance  I 
give  a  tea  at  my  *  refuge,'  to  make  it  very  simple,  no  ices,  no 
cakes,  no  fruit,  except  plums  —  the  least  expensive  fruit  in 
Vienna.  I  laugh  when  I  succeed,  by  dint  of  a  fib  or  two,  in 
selling  a  few  copies  of  my  voluminous  works.  But  my  priva- 
tions amuse  me  ;  I  make  fun  of  my  avarice.  My  house,  rose- 
coloured  like  my  ideas,  is  the  only  one  now  open  in  Vienna. 
I  have  six  dishes  for  dinner,  five  for  supper.  Come  who  will, 
and  sit  who  can.  When  the  sixty  persons  who  frequent  me 
arrive  at  the  same  time,  my  straw  chairs  do  not  suffice ;  and 
then  they  stand  in  flux  and  reflux,  like  the  pit  of  a  theatre, 
till  some  go  away.  There  are  always  some  good  talkers 
among  the  foreigners,  the  only  sociable  ones.  The  talk  turns 
on  Poland,  Ptussia,  England,  little  on  Italy,  little  on  the  old 
France,  never,  naturally,  on  the  France  of  to-day. 

"  I  do  not  go  to  Court,  nor  to  the  assemblies  ;  I  refuse 
great  dinners  and  I  live  content.  I  rather  like  to  play  the 
grand  seigneur  in  the  streets  of  Vienna,  on  horseback  behind 
the  emperor's  carriage  on  occasions  of  ceremony,  when  I  take 
the  office  of  grand  chamberlain.  I  arrange  with  some  co- 
quetry my  collar  and  ribbons,  which  Eoger  Damas  calls  in 
his  charming  way  the  '  bouquet  of  honour.'  I  do  not  wear 
my  uniform  of  lieutenant-general,  only  that  of  my  regiment ; 


208  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

and  when  I  am  appointed  to  carry  tlie  emperor's  children  at 
their  baptism  and  people  ask  me  why,  when  all  the  Court  are 
in  gala  costume,  I  answer,  *I  have  made  myself  an  arch- 
duke.* I  might  regret  my  existence  of  two  or  three  hun- 
dred thousand  Horius  a  year,  my  beautiful  Beloeil,  the  finest 
of  forests,  and  the  possibility  of  being  within  twenty-four 
hours  in  Paris,  London,  the  Hague  or  Spa,  and  the  military 
and  civil  government  of  my  interesting  province,  hut  the 
fear  of  one  quarter  of  an  hour's  painful  reflection  keeps  me 
from  ever  thuiking  of  it ;  if  now  and  then  it  crosses  my 
mind,  I  only  rejoice  that  I  have  no  affairs — not  so  much 
as  my  will  to  make." 

Besides  the  little  house  on  the  ramparts  of  Vienna,  he  had 
another,  an  old  monastery  given  to  him  by  the  Emperor 
Leopold,  on  the  Kalemberg,  otherwise  named  the  Leopold- 
berg,  a  hill,  almost  a  mountain,  close  to  Vienna  and  over- 
looking the  Danube.  He  called  it  his  "  refuge  "  his  "  little 
Belceil,"  and  on  the  wall  that  faced  the  river  he  inscribed 
these  words :  — 

"  Without  remorse,  without  regret,  without  fear,  without  envy, 
I  watch  the  flowing  of  the  river  as  flows  my  life  away." 

Here  he  went  several  times  a  week  in  an  old  landau  with 
creaking  springs  and  wheels,  drawn  by  two  aged  white  horses 
weary  of  life  and  known  to  all  the  town.  The  slowness  of 
this  singular  equipage  formed  a  most  amusing  contrast  to  its 
owner's  vivacity.  Behind  it  stood  a  Turk  with  a  bronzed 
face,  six  feet  tall,  an  inheritance  from  his  son  Charles, 
whom  he  had  taken  into  his  service  on  the  death  of  the 
young  prince.  Ismail's  feeling  for  him  was  nothing  short  of 
adoration. 

In  the  quiet  of  his  mountain,  where,  as  he  said,  "  I  can  live 
my  own  life,"  he  prepared  his  thirty-four  volumes  of  "  Me- 
langes Militaires,  Littoraires  et  Sentimentaires,"  about  which 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   rillNCE   DE   LIGNE.  209 

he  remarked :  "  I  kuow  very  well  that  my  title  '  M(51anges 
Sentimentaires '  is  open  to  criticism  ;  I  know  it  is  not  the 
thing  to  say.  But  I  wish  to  express  the  sentiment  of  sensi- 
bility and  the  sentiment  of  opinion.  It  is  a  composite  word 
that  I  have  invented,  and  must  be  forgiven.  I  could  not 
say  sentimental  nor  sensible.  '  Sentimentaire '  strikes  me  as 
having  more  sense  in  it."  The  prmce,  as  this  sentence 
shows,  was  strictly  an  amateur  in  his  literary  work.  The 
reader  has  seen  in  the  foregoing  chapters  how  admirably  he 
could  relate  the  scenes  in  which  he  had  played  a  part,  how 
delightfully  easy  and  graphic  were  his  letters,  and  how  keen 
(though  kind)  an  eye  he  had  for  the  characteristics  of  the 
persons  with  whom  he  had  to  do.  He  read  with  great  inter- 
est, and  very  intently  what  he  did  read,  but  his  range  was 
limited  and  was  always  that  of  a  dilettante.  In  his  writings 
his  range  is  wider ;  it  covers  much,  but  still  with  the 
same  inconsequent  and  amateur  quality.  His  thirty-four 
volumes  (which  are  small  and  do  not  contain  as  much  as 
their  portentous  number  would  indicate)  came  out  by  de- 
grees and  bear  upon  their  titlepage  the  words :  "  From  my 
Eefuge  on  the  Leopoldberg  near  Vienna.  Sold  in  Dresden 
by  the  Brothers  Walther,  1795,"  —  up  to  1811. 

One  by  one  the  friends  of  his  greater  days  became  a  mem- 
ory :  Maria  Theresa,  Joseph  II.,  Frederick  the  Great,  Lacy, 
Loudon,  and,  saddest  of  all,  Marie-Antoinette.  But  one 
friend  still  remained,  and  she  was  true  to  him.  No  sooner 
did  the  empress  hear  of  his  total  loss  of  fortune  than  her 
first  characteristic  thought  was  to  help  him,  but  to  do  it  so 
delicately  that  his  pride  could  not  suffer.  She  wrote  to  pro- 
pose to  him  the  sale  of  his  property  in  Taurica  (that  which 
she  had  given  him),  not  to  herself,  but  to  Comte  Zouboff, 
the  governor  of  the  province.  To  this  proposal  he  replied  as 
follows :  — 


210  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PEINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

To  H.  I.  M.  the  Empress  Catherine. 

At  3IT  Refuge,  April,  1704. 

Madame, —  Again  I  have  occasion  to  see  that  your  Im- 
perial Majesty  understands  all  things.  You  give,  buy  back, 
re-give,' sell,  re-buy  and  give  again,  and  thus  through  many 
channels  a  rain  of  benefits  is  made  to  fall  upon  your  em- 
pire. .  .  ,  Here,  then,  is  a  good  affair  for  the  Governor  of 
Taurica  and  for  me  ;  but  he  does  not  know  that  I  am  grasp- 
ing. Let  him  be  informed  therefore  that  I  will  never  sell  him 
a  certain  rock  upon  that  property,  the  rock  to  which  I  went 
through  water  to  my  waist  that  I  might  carve  thereon  the 
name  divine  of  Catherine  the  Great,  and  also  the  divine 
name  of  the  lady  of  my  thoughts  at  that  moment.  I  beg 
your  Majesty's  forgiveness  for  that,  but  the  letters  were  very 
small,  and  perhaps  they  are  now  effaced.  Your  Imperial 
Majesty  can  see  that  rock  in  the  drawing  that  I  gave  you  of 
Parthenizza  with  a  plan  for  building  upon  it,  which  I  should 
certainly  have  carried  out  if  it  had  not  been  for  Insuff- 
Pacha,  to  whom  Eussia  owes  so  much  for  the  enhancement 
of  her  glory. 

I  will,  I  insist,  I  claim  that  the  rock  be  called,  "  Rocher 
Ligne  "  —  no  mediation,  no  intervention  against  that ! 

It  is  thus  that  I  learned  at  a  certain  Court  how  to  make 
treaties.  H.  M.  Joseph  II., "  of  glorious  and  eternal  memory," 
as  your  Majesty  says  truly  in  writing  of  your  worthy  friend, 
promised  me  vines  of  his  own  Tokay,  and  vineyard-dressers. 
I  am  sure  that  our  excellent  and  well-beloved  ambassador 
Comte  Razumoski,  who  is  strongly  attached  to  Comte  Zou- 
boff,  will  do  all  that  is  necessary  to  procure  them,  if  the 
latter  wishes  it  —  unless  it  should  now  have  become  impos- 
sible. If  the  guileless  and  virtuous  Sultan  Selim  compels 
your  Llajesty  to  go  to  Constantinople,  I  shall  follow  with 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  211 

my  three  buttons  on  the  sleeve  of  the  green  coat  ■which  I 
still  have,  and  love  with  all  my  heart. 

Plans  of  campaign  are  being  made  here ;  but  I  fear  that 
before  our  troops  pass  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube  the  regi- 
cides will  have  crossed  the  Meuse,  the  Sambre,  and  the  Lys 
in  three  considerable  masses  towards  three  distant  points, 
and  before  the  necessary  concentration  can  be  made  to 
prevent  it  they  may  jump,  m  Russian  fashion,  into  the  in- 
trenched camp  at  Maubeuge,  —  a  thing  I  have  begged 
all  winter  that  our  armies  might  do,  those  infamous  car- 
magnoles being  then  massed  on  the  Rhine  or  in  La  Vendue. 
But  for  the  last  two  years  I  preach  in  vain.  My  kingdom 
is  not  of  this  world  now,  and  I  do  not  wish  that  it  should 
be,  because  things  would  have  to  be  much  worse  and  a  fourth 
campaign  necessary  before  they  would  come  and  seek  me  — 
who  do  not  know  how  to  force  myself,  either  on  whom 
or  how  to  do  it. 

I  have  but  one  favour  to  ask  my  sovereign  ;  it  is  that  she 
will  thank  me  for  not  taking  the  liberty  to  write  to  her  as 
often  as  I  desire,  and  that  she  will  continue  to  me  her  kind- 
ness, so  precious  to  my  heart,  which  for  fourteen  years  has 
been  filled  with  the  same  sentiments  towards  her.  Those  of 
admiration  have  been  there  for  thirty  years,  but  afterwards 
came  gratitude,  and  the  warmest  of  enthusiasms, —  adoration. 

From  H.  I.  M.  the  Empress  Catherine. 

CzAKSKO-zELO,  October,  1794. 

Monsieur  le  Prince  de  Ligne,  —  If  I  have  not  answered 
your  last  letter  for  six  months,  excuse  me ;  I  have  only 
followed  illustrious  examples  who,  when  affairs  were  press- 
ing, taught  me  that  if  they  said  a  courier  would  start  in 
eight  or  ten  days  that  meant,  in  politics,  eight  or  ten 
months  ;  biat  a  good  household  goes  on  all  the  same.     I  am. 


212  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

satisfied  with  mine,  especially  now  that  we  are  worn-out 
with  fgtes  and  toils ;  first  for  our  peace  with  the  Sublime 
Porte,  and  secondly  for  the  marriage  of  Alexander,  my 
grandson  —  it  was  Psyche  wedded  to  Cupid ! 

During  these  fetes  arrived  to  us  tlie  ambassador  of  the 
Grand  Seignior,  who  did  not  do  honour  to  the  finances  of 
Sultan  Selim,  —  his  suite  being  ragged  to  the  last  degree  and 
deprived  of  those  articles  of  habiliment  hitherto  considered 
necessary  to  a  decent  man.  But  no  matter  for  that :  on 
the  first  day  they  declared  to  me  a  possible  third  war.  That 
is  easy ;  he  can  have  it  if  he  wants  it.  The  Turks  are  not 
like  Christian  powers ;  they  usually  make  their  plans  of 
campaign  in  the  autumn,  which  gives  them  plenty  of  time 
to  think  them  over ;  meantime  the  grapes  ripen  of  themselves. 

As  for  Czarsko-zelo,  which  is,  according  to  your  idea,  in  a 
fair  way  to  possess  all  my  caprices,  I  have  lately  made  a 
gentle  slope  which  leads  down  to  the  colonnade  of  the 
garden;  also  an  open  rotunda,  supported  by  thirty-two 
columns  of  Siberian  marble.  I  want  to  see  running  on  the 
grass  of  that  slope  my  grandsons  and  their  wives  and 
children,  —  the  latter  when  the  former  have  them. 

The  Governor  of  Taurica,  Comte  Zoubofi',  will  send  you 
the  money  which  he  has  drawn  from  the  sale  of  Parthenizza 
and  Niscita.  I  don't  know  whether  he  will  employ  for  that 
purpose  the  Israelite  in  whom  you  have  confidence,  or  whether 
the  latter  is  dead  and  buried. 

The  empress,  confident  in  the  prince's  judgment  on 
gardens,  would  sometimes,  during  his  stay  in  Eussia,  ask 
his  advice  about  those  of  Czarsko-zelo.  He  was  seldom  of 
her  opinion  because,  as  he  remarked,  she  had  all  the  tastes 
and  no  taste.  He  was  particularly  given  to  laughing  at  a 
river,  so-called,  which  she  had  caused  to  be  made  through 


MEMOIK  OF  THE  PKINCE  DE  LIGNE.  213 

the  grounds,  calling  it  an  "  imperial  imagination."  One 
day  a  workman  was  drowned  in  it ;  as  soon  as  the  empress 
saw  the  prince  she  announced  the  fact,  adding,  "  What  do 
you  say  to  that  ? "  "  Oh,  the  flatterer ! "  exclaimed  the 
prince.  The  empress  was  fond  of  proving  in  her  letters 
that  her  "little  household,"  as  she  called  her  empire,  was 
orderly  and  well  managed.  In  spite  of  the  immense  ex- 
travagances of  her  Court,  she  had  in  her  nature  a  spirit 
of  order  and  economy;  but  she  never  could  endure  the 
idea  that  reform  in  these  directions  should  bear  upon  others 
and  not  upon  herself.  On  one  occasion  when  the  grand- 
marshal  urged  her  to  abolish  a  great  abuse  in  a  perquisite 
of  wines  given  on  certain  occasions,  she  stopped  him  with 
the  remark :  "  I  beg  you  never  to  propose  to  me  the  saving 
of  candle-ends ;  it  may  be  a  good  thing  in  itself  to  do,  but 
in  me  it  would  be  an  impropriety."  Nevertheless,  she 
accepted  honestly  reforms  that  bore  upon  herself  only,  and 
whatever  might  be  the  plans  on  which  her  heart  was  set, 
such  as  the  erection  of  public  buildings  or  the  purchase  of 
works  of  art,  she  resisted  her  desires  firmly  when  money 
was  lacking.  "  Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan,  or  give  me 
roubles,"  she  said,  in  a  mournfully  comic  tone,  on  one  occa- 
sion when  greatly  tempted. 

Although  she  wrote  to  the  Prince  de  Ligne  twice  a  year 
habitually,  his  last  letter  remained  unanswered  for  eighteen 
months.  Distressed  by  her  silence  he  wrote  her  three 
letters  during  this  period,  of  which  the  following  is  the  last. 

Tlie  Prince  de  Ligne  to  H.  I.  M.  the  Empress  Catherine. 

Vienna,  April  1.3,  1796. 

Madame,  —  If  alas!  were  not  the  saddest  of  words  I 
would  begin  and  end  thus  the  last  letter  I  shall  have  the 
honour  of  writing  to  your  Imperial  Majesty,  for  I  think  you 


214  MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE. 

do  not  wish  to  have  any  more.  Formerly  I  deprived  myself 
of  that  honour,  or  rather  I  checked  myself  in  taking  it,  for 
fear  I  should  abuse  the  kindness  that  answered  me  so 
promptly.  But  having  none  of  your  precious  and  sacred 
writing  in  my  hand  or  upon  my  lips  for  eighteen  months, 
I  fear  it  means  what  Joseph  II.  of  glorious  memory  wrote 
to  one  who  tormented  him  about  his  memoir  :  "  No  answer, 
Qo  answer." 

For  fifteen  years  I  have  never  been  six  months  without 
enjoying  that  ineffable  happiness.  This  is  the  fourth  letter 
in  eighteen  months  that  I  have  taken  the  liberty  to  write 
to  your  Majesty ;  and  the  first  sad  one  of  more  than  sixty 
that  you  have  deigned  to  accept  with  your  gracious  good- 
will. 

Mme.  Le  Brun,  who  bears  it,  may  be  the  best  painter 
there  is  in  the  world,  but  she  cannot  paint  my  pain.  The 
loss  of  my  fortune  was  not  very  hard  to  me,  because  I 
expected  it,  —  knowing  the  workmen  who  were  to  ruin  so 
many  countries  and  cross  so  many  rivers  the  wrong  way. 
But  the  loss  of  my  most  precious,  agreeable,  and  honourable 
of  correspondents  is  worse  to  me  than  the  loss  of  Beloeil. 

I  have  given  that  name  to  a  little  pavihon  ten  feet  in 
diameter  which  I  have  built  upon  a  rock  of  the  mountain 
that  I  call  my  Eefuge ;  so  that  loss  has  been  repaired. 

I  still  know  all  that  concerns  your  Majesty.  I  know  that 
you  enjoy  that  imperturbable  health,  —  the  quality  that  I 
always  ascribed  to  your  soul.  Mine,  without  possessing  it 
through  strength  of  mind,  has  it  in  relation  to  events,  be- 
cause I  am  sickened  with  intrigues  and  blunders  which 
have  made  what  might  have  been  an  easy  war  a  disastrous 
one. 

I  think  incessantly  of  the  days  that  are  gone ;  I  regret 
those  moments  when  I  took  my  homage  to  the  feet  of  your 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  215 

Majesty,  hearing  you,  seeing  you,  and  admiring  you, — 
seldom  done  on  closer  view  of  any  one,  but  reserved  for 
you,  Madame.  It  is  a  true  regret  that  I  now  express,  un- 
happily from  afar,  begging  your  Majesty  to  believe  it,  and 
to  receive  once  more,  etc. 

H.  I.  M.  the  Empress  Catherine  to  the  Prince  de  Ligne. 

CzARSKO-zELO,  July  3,  1790. 

M.  LE  Prince  de  Ligne, —  Other  times,  as  M.  de  Betski 
used  to  say  when  he  had  his  mind,  —  other  times,  before 
condemning  any  one  it  was  usual  to  take  the  trouble  to  hear 
them.  You  are  very  decisive ;  because  I  have  not  answered 
you  for  eighteen  months,  you  think  that  I  do  not  wish  to 
have  your  letters.  Other  times,  before  coming  to  that  con- 
clusion it  seems  to  me  it  was  customary  to  hsten  for  a  little 
word  from  those  interested,  especially  from  old  friends  of 
fifteen  years'  standing.  .  .  . 

Would  you  have  had  me  write  to  you,  "  Alas  !  alas  ! "  and 
fill  my  letters  with  the  troubles,  and  with  my  perfect  dis- 
content at  all  that  was  going  on  in  public  matters  ?  Could 
I  have  written,  with  the  gall  in  my  mouth,  wearisome 
criticisms  that  would  only  have  increased  your  own  dis- 
satisfaction ?  No ;  I  prefer  to  seize  the  present  moment 
to  answer  you,  when  a  gleam  of  hope  lights  up  my  imagina- 
tion. I  fancy  I  see  that  all  the  evil  which  has  been  done 
may  lessen  and  turn  to  good  in  a  flash,  that  evil  and  wicked 
machinations  can  be  foiled  easily,  and  a  return  be  had  to 
the  immutable  principles  of  the  cause  of  kings  by  recogniz- 
ing without  delay  King  Louis  XVIIL,  and  so  enabling  his 
faithful  subjects  to  employ  suitable  means  to  form  a  nucleus 
for  that  cause  in  France.  .  .  . 

The  new  king  will  not  want  for  ways  and  means ;  the  rest 
is  his  own  affair,  not  ours.     You  will  then  come  out  of  your 


216  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

ten-foot  refuge  and  return  to  Beloeil.  We  shall  cease  to 
grieve  for  the  days  that  are  gone.  Mme.  Le  Brun,  after  hav- 
ing painted  the  Grand  Duchess  EUsabeth,  wife  of  my  grand- 
son Alexander,  and  the  eldest  of  my  granddaughters,  who  are 
both  very  pretty,  will  return  to  France  with  the  rest  of  the 
emigres  ;  after  which  we  shall  write  to  each  other  letters  as 
gay  as  they  once  were. 

Adieu.  Keep  well,  and  be  assured  of  my  unalterable  man- 
ner of  thinking  of  you.  Catherine. 

[This  was  the  last  letter  the  Prince  de  Ligne  received  from 
the  empress.  She  was  seized  with  apoplexy  November  17, 
1796,  and  died  without  regaining  consciousness,  in  the  sixty- 
seventh  year  of  her  age.  The  prince  was  staggered  by  the 
blow.  With  the  empress  disappeared  the  last  living  link  to 
his  brilliant  past ;  and,  more  than  that,  it  was  a  loss  to  his 
affections.  Immediately  after  her  death  he  wrote  the  follow- 
ing portrait  of  her,  which  will  be  found  in  vol.  xx.  of  his 
Works.] 

Catherine  the  Great  (I  hope  that  Europe  will  confirm  this 
title  which  I  have  given  her),  Catherine  the  Great  is  no 
more.  Those  words  are  dreadful  to  utter.  Yesterday  I 
could  not  have  written  them ;  but  I  shall  try  to-day  to  pre- 
sent the  idea  that  should  be  formed  of  her. 

This  sketch  of  her  traits,  or  rather  aU  these  collected  traits, 
of  little  importance  in  themselves,  have  no  pretension,  and 
are  only  related  here  to  enable  the  reader  to  form  for  himself 
a  portrait  that  is  fairly  like  her.  What  I  write  is  just  what 
comes  into  my  head  at  this  moment,  to  occupy  my  heart, 
still  shocked  by  this  terrible  announcement. 

Her  personal  presence  is  made  known  in  painting  and  in 
narrative,  and  is  almost  always  well  presented. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  217 

She  was  still  handsome  sixteen  years  ago.  It  was  plain 
that  she  had  always  been  beautiful,  rather  than  pretty  ;  the 
majesty  of  her  forehead  was  tempered  by  the  eyes  and  the 
charm  of  her  smile,  but  that  forehead  told  all.  Without 
being  a  Lavater  one  could  read  there,  as  in  a  book,  genius, 
justice,  honesty,  courage,  depth,  equanimity,  gentleness,  calm- 
ness, firmness.  The  breadth  of  that  brow  revealed  the  facul- 
ties of  memory  and  imagination  ;  there  was  room  there  for 
all.  Her  slightly  pointed  chin  was  not  absolutely  advanced, 
but  it  was  certainly  far  from  retreating,  and  had  much  nobil- 
ity. The  oval  of  her  face  was  not  well  defined  on  this 
account ;  though  the  face  itself  was  infinitely  pleasing  for 
the  frankness  and  gayety  that  dwelt  upon  her  lips.  She 
must  have  had  a  fresh  complexion,  and  a  beautiful  bust ;  the 
last,  however,  only  came  to  her  at  the  cost  of  her  waist, 
which  once  was  slender  almost  to  breaking ;  but  in  Kussia 
the  women  grow  fat  very  fast.  She  was  cleanly,  and  if  she 
had  not  had  a  fashion  of  drawing  her  hair  back  when  it  ought 
to  have  fallen  lower  and  accompanied  her  face,  she  would 
certainly  have  looked  better. 

One  scarcely  perceived  that  she  was  short.  She  told  me, 
in  her  slow  way,  that  at  one  time  she  had  been  extremely 
quick,  —  a  thing  of  which  it  was  impossible  to  form  an  idea. 
Her  three  bows,  in  masculine  fashion,  it  la  Eusse,  were 
always  made  on  entering  a  room,  precisely  in  the  same  man- 
ner ;  one  to  the  right,  one  to  the  left,  the  third  to  the  middle, 
in  front  of  her.  Everything  about  her  was  measured  and 
methodical.  She  had  the  art  of  listening;  and  so  great  a 
habit  of  presence  of  mind  that  she  seemed  to  be  understand- 
ing when  perhaps  she  was  really  thinking  of  something  else. 
She  never  talked  for  tlie  sake  of  talking,  and  she  brought  the 
best  out  of  those  who  talked  to  her.  Nevertheless,  the 
Empress  Maria  Theresa  had  far   more  witchery  and  fasci- 


218  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

nation.  She  gratified  and  allured  much  more  than  the 
Empress  Catherine  at  first  sight,  being  herself  led  on  by 
the  desire  to  please  every  one  in  general,  and  by  her  grace, 
which  gave  her  powers  that  were  more  or  less  studied.  Our 
empress  charmed ;  the  Russian  empress  allowed  the  much 
less  powerful  first  impression  that  she  made  to  deepen. 
They  resembled  each  other  in  one  thing,  namely :  though 
the  universe  should  crumble  at  their  feet,  impavidas  ferient 
ruince.  Nothing  on  earth  could  have  made  them  give  way. 
Their  great  souls  were  armoured  against  reverses ;  enthu- 
siasm flew  before  one  and  marched  behind  the  other. 

If  the  sex  of  Catherine  the  Great  had  allowed  her  the 
activity  of  a  man,  able  to  see  everything  for  himself,  go 
everywhere,  and  enter  into  all  details,  there  would  not  have 
been  a  single  abuse  left  in  her  empire.  Apart  from  these 
details  she  was  greater,  beyond  a  doubt,  than  Peter  the 
Great,  and  she  would  never  have  made  his  shameful  capitu- 
lation at  the  Pruth.  Anne  and  Elisabeth,  on  the  contrary, 
would  have  made  commonplace  men,  whereas,  as  women, 
their  reigns  were  not  without  glory.  Catherine  II.  united 
the  qualities  she  found  in  them  with  all  those  that  made  her 
the  creator,  rather  than  the  autocrat,  of  her  empire.  She  was 
easily  a  greater  statesman  than  either  of  those  empresses; 
she  never  risked  anything,  and,  victorious  or  peace-making, 
she  never  met  with  a  single  reverse. 

The  empress  had  all  that  was  good,  that  is,  all  that  was 
grand,  in  Louis  XIV.  Her  magnificence,  her  f§tes,  her 
pensions,  her  purchases,  her  pageantry  resemble  his.  She 
held  her  Court  better ;  because  there  was  nothing  theatrical 
or  exaggerated  about  it.  But  what  an  imposing  scene  was 
that  mixture  of  the  rich  Asiatic  or  military  costumes  of 
thirty  different  nations  !  People  trembled  at  the  sight  of 
Louis  XIV. ;  they  were  encouraged  by  that  of  Catherine  IL 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  219 

Louis  was  drunk  with  his  fame ;  Catherine  sought  hers  and 
widened  it  without  ever  losing  her  head.  Yet  there  was 
enough  to  make  her  do  so  amid  the  fairy-tale  of  our  trium- 
phal and  romantic  journey  in  Taurica,  with  its  surprises, 
fleets,  and  legions,  its  illuminations,  its  enchanted  palaces, 
its  gardens  created  for  one  day  only,  and  she  herself  sur- 
rounded by  homage,  seeing  at  her  feet  the  hospodars  of 
Wallachia,  the  exiled  kings  of  the  Caucasus,  the  families  of 
persecuted  princes,  who  came  to  ask  for  help  or  an  asylum. 
Instead  of  having  her  head  turned  by  all  that,  she  said  to 
me,  when  we  visited  the  battlefield  of  Pultawa :  "  See  what 
empires  hang  by ;  one  day  decides  their  fate.  Without 
the  blunder  the  Swedes  made  on  this  spot  which  you  gen- 
tlemen are  pointing  out  to  me,  we  should  not  now  be  here." 

Her  Imperial  Majesty  often  talked  of  the  role  she  had 
to  play  in  the  world,  but  she  knew  it  was  a  role.  In  any 
other,  and  in  whatever  class  she  had  been  obliged  to  play 
one,  she  would  still  have  acquitted  herself  as  well,  because 
of  her  sound  judgment.  But  the  role  of  empress  suited  best 
her  countenance,  her  bearing,  the  elevation  of  her  soul,  and 
the  immensity  of  her  genius,  as  vast  as  her  empire.  She 
knew  herself;  and  she  knew  what  merit  was.  Catherine 
chose  her  servitors  with  a  cool  head,  putting  each  man 
in  the  place  that  fitted  him.  She  said  to  me  one  day :  "  I 
often  laugh  alone  to  myself  at  the  fright  of  a  general  or  a 
minister  when  I  treat  his  enemies  well.  They  are  not  mine 
for  all  that,  I  say  to  myself.  I  employ  them  because  they 
have  talent ;  and  I  scorn  those  who  imagine  that  I  should 
not  make  use  of  men  whom  they  don't  like." 

She  often  balanced  the  favour  of  some  by  that  of  others, 
who  redoubled  their  zeal  in  consequence  and  observed  each 
other  more  closely.  It  was  apropos  of  her  ways  of  making 
herself  served  and  being  led  by  no  one  that  I  once  wrote  to 


220  MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

lier  :  "  There  is  much  talk  about  the  cabinet  of  Petersburg ; 
I  know  of  none  so  small,  for  it  is  only  a  few  inches  in 
dimensions  ;  it  extends  from  one  temple  to  the  other,  and 
from  the  root  of  the  nose  to  the  roots  of  the  hair." 

On  leaving  one  of  the  governments  she  had  visited,  the 
empress  was  still  paying  compliments  and  thanks  and 
making  presents  as  she  got  into  the  carriage.  I  said  to  her : 
"  Your  Majesty  seems  very  well  satisfied  with  those  people." 
"  Not  at  all,"  she  replied ;  "  but  I  always  praise  out  loud  and 
scold  quite  low." 

She  never  said  any  but  good  things  (I  could  cite  thou- 
sands), but  never  a  witty  one.  "  Is  it  not  true,"  she  said  to 
me  more  than  once,  "  that  you  never  heard  me  utter  a 
hon-mot  ?  You  never  expected  to  find  me  so  stupid,  did 
you  ? "  I  replied  that  it  was  true  I  had  expected  that  my 
wits  would  have  to  be  perpetually  under  arms  before  her, 
and  that  her  conversation,  in  which  she  permitted  herself 
everything,  would  be  all  fireworks,  but,  as  it  was,  I  preferred 
her  careless  talk;  —  which  grew  sublime  when  it  touched 
on  noble  facts  of  history,  of  feeling,  of  grand  ideas,  or  of 
government.  "What  sort  of  looking  person  did  you  sup- 
pose me  to  be  ?  "  she  asked.  "  Tall,  stiff,  eyes  like  stars,  and 
a  great  hoop."  This  amused  her  whenever  she  thought  of 
it,  and  she  often  reproached  me  for  it.  "  I  thought,"  I 
added,  "  there  would  be  nothing  to  do  except  admire ;  and 
admiration  is  wearisome."  It  was  the  contrast  of  simplicity 
in  aU  she  said  in  social  life  with  the  great  things  that  she 
did  that  made  her  so  piquante.  She  laughed  at  paltry 
things,  quotations,  nonsense,  and  amused  herself  with 
nothings. 

"  Is  n't  it  true,"  she  said  to  me  one  day,  "  that  I  should 
never  have  wit  enough  for  Paris  ?  I  am  convinced  that 
if  I  had  been  one  of  the  women  of  my  country  who  go  there 


Z>r^e^^?*  ./A^   ^'^'ecL^ 


MEMOIR  OP  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  221 

in  travelling  the  Parisians  would  never  have  asked  me  to 
supper."  She  called  herself  sometimes,  "your  imperturb- 
able," because  once,  when  we  were  speaking  of  the  quahties 
of  the  soul,  I  told  her  that  was  pre-eminently  hers.  The 
word,  which  took  her  a  quarter  of  an  hour  to  pronounce, 
rolling  it  out  with  her  majestic  and  sonorous  slowness, 
amused  her  much,  especially  when,  to  lengthen  it  still 
more,  she  would  say,  "  Have  I,  then,  imperturbabihty  ? 
But  what  can  you  expect  ? "  she  added.  "  Mademoiselle 
Gardel  never  taught  me  any  better ;  she  was  one  of  those 
old  French  governesses,  a  refugee.  She  taught  me  enough 
to  be  married  in  my  own  neighbourhood :  but  Mademoiselle 
Gardel  and  I,  we  never  expected  all  this." 

Eemembering  this,  she  said  in  a  letter  that  she  wrote  me 
while  a  naval  battle  during  the  last  war  with  Sweden  was 
going  on  [1788] :  "  It  is  to  the  booming  of  cannon  which 
shakes  the  windows  of  my  residence  that  your  imperturbable 
writes  to  you."  I  have  never  seen  anything  as  prompt  or 
better  done  than  her  arrangements  for  that  very  unexpected 
war,  written  by  her  own  hand,  and  sent  to  Prince  Potemkin, 
during  our  siege  of  Oczakow.  At  the  bottom  she  had 
added,  "  Have  I  done  well,  my  master  ? " 

The  empress  always  accused  herself  of  ignorance  ;  and  one 
day  when  she  was  arguing  with  me  on  that  point  and  I  had 
proved  to  her  that  she  knew  by  heart  Pericles,  Lycurgus, 
Solon,  Montesquieu,  Locke,  and  the  great  eras  of  Athens, 
Sparta,  Eome,  modern  Italy,  France,  and  the  histories  of  all 
lands,  I  said :  "  As  your  Majesty  insists  upon  it,  I  shall  say 
of  you  what  the  valet  of  Pfere  Griffet  said  of  his  master  after 
complaining  to  me  that  he  never  knew  where  he  had  put  his 
snuff-box,  his  pen,  or  his  handkerchief:  'Believe  me,  mon- 
sieur, that  man  is  not  what  you  think  him ;  outside  of  his 

learning,  he  knows  nothing.'  " 
Ver.  7  Mem.  15 


222  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

Her  Majesty  made  use  of  this  pretension  of  ignorance  to 
laugh  at  doctors,  academies,  semi-learned  men,  and  sham 
connoisseurs.  I  agreed  with  her  that  she  had  no  knowledge 
of  painting  or  of  music ;  and  I  proved  to  her  one  day,  rather 
more  than  she  wanted,  that  her  taste  in  architecture  was 
second-rate.  "  Acknowledge,"  she  said,  showing  me  her  new 
palace  at  Moscow,  "  that  this  is  a  magnificent  vista  of  apart- 
ments." "  It  has,"  I  replied,  "  the  beauty  of  a  hospital ;  but 
as  a  residence  it  is  pitiable.  The  doors  are  too  lofty  for  each 
room,  and  yet  they  are,  necessarily,  too  small  for  such  a  long 
suite  of  rooms,  which  are  all,  just  as  they  are  at  your  Hermit- 
age, precisely  alike." 

But  in  spite  of  some  defects  of  architecture,  her  public 
and  private  edifices  have  made  Petersburg  the  finest  city  in 
the  world.  Her  tastes  stand  her  in  place  of  the  "taste" 
which  I  refuse  to  her,  for  fear  of  thinking  her  invariably  too 
admirable.  She  has,  however,  collected  in  her  residences 
masterpieces  of  all  kinds.  She  used  to  boast  of  her  knowl- 
edge of  medals ;  but  I  will  not  answer  for  that. 

When  her  anti-musical  ear  prevented  her  progress  in  the 
mechanism  of  verse,  which  the  Comte  de  S^gur  and  I  tried 
to  teach  her  in  her  galley  on  the  Borysthenes,  she  said  to 
us :  "  Now  you  see,  gentlemen,  that  you  only  praise  me  in 
the  mass ;  when  it  comes  to  details  you  think  me  an  ignora- 
mus." I  said  that  at  least  she  must  allow  she  was  mistress 
of  one  science.  "  What  is  it  ? "  she  asked.  "  That  of  seizing 
opportunity  "  [celle  des  d,  propos].  "  I  don't  understand  that," 
she  said.  "  Your  Majesty  has  never  said,  or  caused  to 
be  said,  or  changed,  ordered,  begun,  or  finished  anything 
except  at  the  right  moment."  "  Perhaps,"  she  replied,  "  it 
may  all  look  so,  but  examine  a  little  deeper.  It  is  to  Prince 
Orloff  that  I  owe  the  glory  of  my  reign ;  it  was  he  who 
advised  me  to  send  my  fleet  to  the  Archipelago.     It  is  to 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  223 

Prince  Potemkin  that  I  owe  Taurica,  and  the  expulsion  of 
all  sorts  of  Tartars  who  were  always  threatening  the  empire. 
The  most  that  can  be  said  of  me  is  that  I  trained  those 
gentlemen.  To  Mar^chal  Rumiantzeff  I  owe  my  victories 
This  is  what  I  said  to  him :  '  Monsieur  le  marechal,  we 
are  coming  to  blows;  it  is  better  to  give  them  than  take 
them.'  To  Michaelsen  I  owe  the  capture  of  Pugatcheff, 
who  came  very  near  getting  to  Moscow,  and  perhaps  farther. 
Believe  me,  I  have  liad  luck  ;  and  if  people  are  satisfied  with 
me,  it  is  because  I  have  had  a  little  firmness  and  consistency 
in  my  principles.  I  give  great  authority  to  those  I  employ ; 
if  they  abuse  it  sometimes  in  my  provinces  that  join  the 
Turks,  Persians,  and  Chinese,  so  much  the  worse,  I  wish  to 
be  told  of  it.  I  know  very  well  they  say  to  themselves: 
'  God  and  the  empress  would  punish  us ;  but  one  is  very 
high  up,  and  the  other  is  very  far  off.'  Such  are  men ;  and 
I  am  only  a  woman." 

At  another  time  she  said  to  me :  "  1 11  wager  they  serve 
me  up  in  your  Europe  very  badly ;  they  are  always  saying 
I  shall  be  bankrupt  because  I  spend  money.  Well,  you  see 
my  little  household  keeps  a-going."  She  was  fond  of  that 
expression ;  and  when  we  praised  the  order  and  punctuality 
with  which  she  did  her  work,  she  often  answered :  "  One 
must  have  method  in  one's  little  household." 

The  force  of  her  mind  showed  itself  in  what  was  very 
improperly  called  the  weakness  of  her  heart.  The  favourites 
never  had  either  power  or  infhience ;  but  when  her  Imperial 
Majesty  had  trained  them  herself  to  business,  and  had  tried 
them  by  the  communication  of  such  business  as  she  was 
willing  to  disclose,  they  were  useful  to  her.  This  use  was 
always  honourable  on  both  sides,  giving  the  right  to  say  and 
to  hear  the  truth.  I  have  seen  Count  Momonoff,  who  prac- 
tised that  virtue  perfectly,  constantly  ready  to  sacrifice  his 


224  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

favour  to  it.  I  have  known  him  to  contradict,  oppose,  pro- 
tect, recommend,  insist,  and  resist ;  and  I  also  know  that  it 
was  taken  kindly,  and  admiration  was  felt  for  his  fidelity  to 
friendship,  his  loyalty  and  his  constant  desire  to  do  good  for 
good's  sake. 

She  said  to  me :  "  My  so-called  extravagance  is  an  econ- 
omy ;  the  money  stays  in  the  country  and  comes  back  to 
me  some  day.  I  have  some  little  resources  still  left,  but  as 
you  tell  me  that  you  would  sell,  gamble,  or  lose  the  diamonds 
I  might  give  you,  here  are  some  worth  only  a  hundred 
roubles  round  my  picture  in  this  ring."  She  had  all  sorts  of 
ways  of  giving.  Besides  the  sort  of  profusion  of  which 
I  have  spoken,  which  was  that  of  a  great  and  powerful 
sovereign,  she  gave  with  the  generosity  of  a  noble  soul, 
the  beneficence  of  a  kind  one,  the  compassion  of  a  woman, 
and  also,  for  the  purpose  of  rewarding,  like  a  man  who 
desires  to  be  well  served.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  was  the 
thought  she  put  into  it,  or  merely  the  style  of  her  soul,  but 
she  gave  with  a  singular  grace.  For  instance,  she  wrote  to 
Count  Suwaroff :  "  You  know  that  I  never  promote  any  one 
out  of  his  turn ;  I  am  incapable  of  doing  such  wrong  to  men 
older  in  the  service ;  but  you  have  made  yourself  a  marshal 
by  the  conquest  of  Poland." 

She  always  carried  with  her  in  travelling  the  portrait  of 
Peter  the  Great,  and  she  explained  to  me :  "  It  is  that  I  may 
ask  myself  at  any  moment  of  the  day.  What  would  he  have 
ordered,  what  would  he  have  forbidden,  what  would  he  have 
done,  were  he  now  in  my  place  ?  "  She  assured  me  that  what 
made  her  like  Joseph  11.  (besides  the  charm  he  put  into  every 
hour  of  his  intercourse  with  her)  was  his  resemblance  to 
Peter  the  Great  in  activity  and  the  desire  to  be  instructed 
and  to  give  instruction ;  and  also  in  his  devotion  to  the 
State.     "  He  has  a  serious  mind,"  she  said  to  me,  "  and  is 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE.  225 

also  very  agreeable ;  he  is  always  occupied  in  useful  things  ; 
his  head  is  forever  at  work."  Alas  for  those  unjust  persons 
who  have  never  rightly  valued  his  worth. 

The  empress  was  much  beloved  by  her  clergy,  although 
she  had  diminished  and  limited  their  wealth  and  authority. 
When  Pugatcheff,  at  the  head  of  his  brigands,  roamed  the 
country  and  entered  the  churches,  sabre  in  hand,  command- 
ing that  prayers  be  offered  up  for  him  alone,  a  priest  took 
up  the  Holy  Sacrament  and  went  to  meet  him.  "  Increase 
your  crimes,  wretch,"  he  said,  "  and  slay  me  here,  bearing 
in  my  arms  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  shall  pray  for  our 
great  empress." 

One  could  never  say  a  word  of  harm  of  Peter  the  Great  or 
Louis  XIV.  before  the  empress,  nor  the  slightest  little  thing 
against  religion  or  morals  ;  she  would  scarcely  allow  of  any- 
thing the  least  risky,  though  carefully  veiled,  although  she 
might  laugh  under  her  breath  at  it.  She  never  allowed  her- 
self  to  jest  either  on  such  matters,  or  about  persons ;  some- 
times, in  presence  of  the  one  whom  the  joke  concerned,  she 
would  touch  upon  it  very  gently,  but  she  always  ended  by 
giving  pleasure  to  the  man  himself.  I  had  much  trouble 
one  day  in  getting  myself  pardoned  for  a  remark  I  made  at 
the  expense  of  Louis  XIV.  as  I  was  walking  with  the  em- 
press at  Czarsko-zelo,  "  At  least,"  I  said  to  her,  "  your 
Majesty  must  allow  that  the  grand  monarch  required  an 
avenue  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  wide  in  which  to 
take  his  walk  beside  a  canal  of  the  same  width,  and  that  he 
knew  nothing,  as  you  do,  of  a  wood-path,  a  brook,  or  a 
meadow." 

I  have  had  occasion  already  to  remark  upon  her  courage. 
Just  before  entering  Barczisarai,  our  sixteen  little  Tartar 
horses  were  unable  to  hold  back  the  great  carriage  with  six 
places  in  which  we  made  our  entrance  to  the  Crimea,  and 


226  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

were  forced  to  run  away  with  it  down  the  slope  of  a  hill  with 
a  precipice  on  one  side ;  there  was  every  reason  to  suppose 
that  our  necks  would  be  broken.  I  should  have  been  more 
frightened  myself  but  that  I  wanted  to  see  if  the  empress 
were  so.  She  was  perfectly  calm,  —  as  if  she  were  still  at 
the  breakfast-table  we  had  just  left.  I  looked  also  at  the 
emperor,  who  was  putting  a  good  face  on  an  ugly  matter. 
The  sixteen  little  horses  all  fell  down,  one  on  top  of  another, 
as  I  had  expected,  and  that  saved  our  lives.  But  what  an 
upsetting  might  have  taken  place  in  Europe !  Sixty  mil- 
lions of  inhabitants  were  within  one  minute  of  changing 
masters.  I  heard  the  touching  "  Allah !  Allah ! "  of  our 
Tartar  escort,  invoking  Heaven  to  preserve  the  life  of  its 
new  sovereign. 

The  empress  was  very  hard  to  please  in  her  reading ;  she 
would  have  nothing  sad,  or  too  refined  in  quintessence  of 
mind  or  feeling.  She  liked  the  romances  of  Le  Sage,  Molifere, 
and  Corneille.  "  Eacine  is  not  the  man  for  me,"  she  said, 
"  except  in  '  Mithridates.'  "  Eabelais  and  Scarron  had  made 
her  laugh  in  former  times,  but  she  did  not  recollect  them. 
She  had  very  little  memory  for  frivolous  or  useless  things, 
but  she  never  forgot  anything  that  was  interesting.  She 
liked  the  Plutarch  of  Amyot  and  the  Tacitus  of  Amelot  de 
la  Houssaye  and  Montaigne.  "  I  am  a  Gaul  of  the  North," 
she  said  to  me  ;  "  I  understand  the  old  French,  but  I  do  not 
understand  the  new.  I  have  tried  to  get  something  out  of 
your  clever  men  of  isms  ;  I  have  had  them  come  to  Eussia, 
and  have  sometimes  written  to  them,  but  they  bore  me,  and 
they  never  understand  me.  There 's  no  one  like  my  kind 
protector  Voltaire.  Do  you  know,  it  was  he  who  brought 
me  into  vogue.  He  paid  me  well  for  the  pleasure  I  have 
taken  all  my  life  in  reading  him  ;  he  has  taught  me  a  great 
many  things  while  amusing  me." 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  227 

The  empress  neither  liked  nor  really  knew  modern  litera- 
ture ;  she  had  more  logic  than  rhetoric.  Her  frivolous  works, 
her  comedies  for  instance,  always  had  some  moral  purpose, 
such  as  criticism  of  fashionable  people,  modes,  sects,  and 
above  all  martinistcs,  whom  she  thought  dangerous.  All  the 
letters  that  I  have  from  her  are  filled  with  grand,  strong,  and 
vividly  luminous  ideas  ;  sometimes  with  keen  criticisms,  es- 
pecially when  something  in  Europe  had  made  her  indignant ; 
besides  all  this,  much  gayety  and  good-nature.  Her  style 
has  more  clearness  than  lightness ;  and  her  serious  works  are 
profound.  Her  history  of  Russia  is,  to  my  thinking,  worth 
more  than  the  chronological  tables  of  President  H^nault ; 
but  little  shadings,  the  charm  of  details  and  colour  were  not 
her  forte.  Frederick  the  Great  had  no  colour,  but  he  had 
all  the  rest,  and  he  was  better  read  than  Catherine. 

She  said  to  me  sometimes :  "  You  want  to  laugh  at  me ; 
now  what  have  I  said  ? "  It  was  usually  some  obsolete 
French  word,  or  one  ill  pronounced.  For  instance :  "  Your 
Majesty  said  haschante  instead  of  hacchante"  She  promised 
to  correct  that,  and  then  immediately  made  me  laugh  again 
at  her  expense,  for,  while  granting  a  favour  to  some  one,  she 
made  a  stroke  of  three  at  bilhards,  which  allowed  me  to  win 
a  dozen  roubles. 

Her  greatest  dissimulation  was  in  not  saying  all  that  she 
thought  and  all  that  she  knew;  but  nothing  sly  or  insidious 
ever  came  from  her  lips.  She  was  too  proud  to  deceive  ;  and 
if  she  deceived  herself  she  would  get  out  of  it  by  relying  on 
her  luck  and  her  superiority  to  events,  which  she  loved  to 
master.  Some  thoughts,  however,  of  the  reverses  that  befell 
the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  at  its  close  did  cross  her  mind,  but 
chey  passed  like  clouds.  I  am  the  only  one  who  saw  that 
for  a  single  quarter  of  an  hour  the  last  declaration  of  war 
with  Turkey  made  her  think  humbly  that  nothing  in  this 


228  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

world  is  stable,  and  that  glory  and  success  are  uncer- 
tain. But  she  left  her  apartment  that  day  with  the  same 
serene  air  she  had  worn  before  her  courier  departed,  and  with 
the  same  confidence  by  which  she  inspired,  from  the  first, 
her  whole  empire. 

Her  traits  of  humanity  were  of  daily  occurrence.  I  re- 
member her  saying  to  me  one  day :  "  I  made  my  fire  this 
morning  so  as  not  to  oblige  my  servants  to  get  up  too  early, 
because  it  is  so  cold.  There  was  a  little  sweep  in  the  chim- 
ney, who  never  supposed  I  would  get  up  at  half-past  five ; 
he  screamed  like  a  demon ;  I  put  out  the  fire  as  fast  as  I 
could  and  begged  his  pardon."  It  is  known  that  she  almost 
never  sent  any  one  to  Siberia,  where,  however,  they  are  very 
well  treated ;  and  she  never  condemned  any  one  to  death. 
The  empress  often  appealed  to  the  judges  against  their  judg- 
ments ;  she  would  urge  them  to  examine  and  prove  whether 
or  not  she  was  wrong ;  and  she  frequently  furnished  the 
means  of  defence  to  accused  persons.  I  have,  however,  de- 
tected a  sort  of  maliciousness  in  her,  a  look  of  kindness, 
sometimes  a  benefit,  given  to  embarrass  those  of  whom  she 
had  reason  to  complain,  but  who  were  persons  of  merit  never- 
theless ;  such,  for  instance,  as  a  grandee  of  the  empire  who 
had  talked  too  freely  about  her.  Here  is  an  instance  of  her 
despotism.  She  forbade  a  man  of  her  Court  to  live  in  his 
own  house,  saying :  "  You  shall  have  in  mine,  twice  a  day, 
a  table  served  for  twelve  persons ;  the  company  you  are  so 
fond  of  having  in  your  own  house  you  may  have  in  mine. 
I  forbid  you  to  ruin  yourself ;  but  I  order  you  to  continue 
the  same  extravagance  here,  as  it  gives  you  so  much  pleasure." 
[The  prince  does  not  give  the  name,  but  this  was  doubtless 
Prince  Narischkin.] 

Calumny,  which  has  not  respected  the  most  beautiful,  the 
best,  the  most  feeling,  the  most  lovable   of  queens,  whose 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE.  229 

soul  and  conduct  I  am,  more  than  any  other,  able  to  justify, 
will  doubtless,  without  respect  for  the  greatest  of  sovereigns, 
strew  thorns  upon  her  grave ;  it  snatched  away  the  flowers 
that  should  have  covered  that  of  Antoinette;  it  will  teai 
away  the  laurels  from  that  of  Catheriae. 

The  inventors  of  anecdotes,  the  hbellers,  the  false  ferrets 
of  history,  the  evil-intentioned,  the  mahgnant  by  profession, 
and  all  the  heedless  people  seeking  to  say  a  piquant  thing 
or  earn  a  little  money,  may  try  perhaps  to  lower  her  celeb- 
rity. But  she  will  triumph  over  all.  People  will  remember 
of  her  what  I  have  seen  myself  as  I  journeyed  two  thousand 
leagues  beside  her  through  her  States ;  they  will  remember 
the  love  and  adoration  of  her  subjects,  and  in  her  armies  the 
love  and  the  enthusiasm  of  her  soldiers.  I  have  seen  the 
latter  in  the  trenches,  braving  the  balls  of  the  infidels  and 
the  rigour  of  the  elements,  consoling  and  animating  their 
hearts  with  the  name  of  Matouschka  —  their  mother  and 
their  idol. 

I  have  seen  what  I  would  never  say  of  the  empress  during 
her  lifetime,  but  what  my  love  for  truth  has  made  me  write 
on  the  morrow  of  the  day  when  I  learned  that  the  brightest 
star  that  lighted  our  hemisphere  has  disappeared. 


X. 

1800-1809. 
LAST  YEARS  IN  VIENNA. 

Twice  I  was  chosen  and  very  nearly  ordered  to  take  com- 
mand of  our  army  in  Italy  against  Bonaparte.  They  sought 
me,  as  it  were,  in  my  bed,  where  laziness  kept  me  away  from 
all  base  efforts  required  to  succeed  in  such  directions.  Each 
time  I  learned  that  the  four  pensioners  who  have  lost  us 
that  beautiful  land,  were  preferred  before  me.  Enchanted 
that  I  was  thought  of  to  save  it,  I  felt  a  momentary  pang 
at  the  fall  of  the  visions  of  victory  in  which  I  had  let  myself 
indulge.  But  I  have  the  good  sense  to  grasp  eagerly  and 
give  up  tranquilly  whatever  expectation  promises,  so  that 
it  does  not  cost  me  very  much  to  be  deprived  of  it. 

I  have  myself  to  blame,  moreover,  for  not  having  made 
all  the  needful  applications.  The  first  time,  a  woman  made 
me  promise  I  would  take  no  steps  to  command  the  army  of 
Italy.  I  consented  because,  at  that  time,  I  chose  to  give  the 
name  of  baseness  to  what  I  might  really  have  done  very 
nobly.  I  heard  afterwards  that  the  grand  vizir  [Thugut, 
Austrian  prime  minister]  expected  this  very  thing.  I  was 
not  his  man ;  I  would  never  have  allowed  an  adjutant  to  be 
given  to  me  to  govern  me  ;  I  would  never  have  let  my  plan 
of  campaign  be  made  by  puppies  and  postilions,  who,  carry- 
ing news  from  the  army  to  the  vizir,  shut  themselves  up 
with  him  in  his  vaulted  den  of  intrigue,  concocted  operations, 
and  returned  to  the  army  with  orders  that  they  themselves 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  TIUNCE  DE  LIGNE.  231 

had  given.  Though  I  might  not  have  had  full  success,  I  will 
answer  for  it  that  the  enemy  would  not  have  had  much 
either,  and  the  spirit  of  our  army  would  have  been  preserved. 

All  this,  however,  did  not  prevent  me  from  offering  my 
services  later,  to  serve  with  whom,  or  even  under  whom  they 
chose ;  nor  did  it  hinder  me  from  expecting  and  awaiting  a 
battle  where,  as  I  ardently  hoped,  I  might  end  and  glorify 
my  career.  I  have  since  heard  that  Lord  Grenville,  being 
in  Berhn  at  the  time  when  Belgium,  two  years  after  its 
capture,  began  to  bestir  itself,  sent  a  letter  to  our  vizir  re- 
questing that  I  might  be  placed  in  command  of  the  army 
of  the  Ehine.     The  emperor  was  not  even  told  of  this. 

At  another  time  the  Comte  de  Castellofero  asked  for  me 
on  behalf  of  the  King  of  Sardinia,  who  was,  he  said,  dissatis- 
fied with  the  Austrian  generals,  and  wanted  some  one  "  of  the 
school  of  Loudon."  The  king,  he  said,  would  only  allow  his 
contingent  to  be  commanded  by  me,  and  he  offered  to  give 
me  the  same  patents  and  instructions  as  the  emperor. 
Thugut  smiled  pleasantly,  seemed  about  to  consent,  but 
turned  the  conversation  and  soon  made  his  exit.  "  Wliat 
are  you  about?"  said  the  Chevalier  Eden  (a  third  in  the 
triumvirate  with  Razumoski  and  the  vizir)  the  next  day  to 
Castellofero.  "  They  tell  me  you  want  to  say  who  shall 
command  the  armies  —  and  who  indeed  ?  the  Prince  de 
Ligne,  who  would  exterminate  those  of  Piedmont  and 
Austria  in  one  campaign." 

The  stupidity  or  the  malice  of  persons  in  favour,  the 
miserable  selections  they  have  made,  their  neglect  of  brave 
and  enlightened  men,  have  at  last  destroyed  my  military 
fervour,  which  until  now  I  could  never  have  thought  pos- 
sible. I  have  broken  the  dearest  idol  of  my  heart  —  Glory. 
Almost  I  have  resolved  never  again  to  put  myself  under 
fire.     I   never    boasted   of    my   battles   or   of    certain   dis- 


232  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

tinguished  actions  during  my  twelve  campaigns ;  I  wept  and 
laughed  to  see  in  Italy  and  in  the  Low  Countries  four  poor 
ignorant  men  in  command,  all  of  whom  I  had  had  under  my 
orders,  and  to  none  of  whom,  except  Clerfayt,  would  I  have 
given  three  batteries  to  command.  Of  aU  the  public  puppets 
on  the  stage  of  this  war,  the  best  would  have  been  Clerfayt, 
if  his  fear  of  responsibility  had  not  too  often  paralyzed  his 
numerous  means. 

All  those  who  have  lost  the  Low  Countries  and  Italy,  and 
who  are  working  to  lose  the  rest,  and  all  those  who  have 
played  a  good  or  a  bad  part  in  these  wars,  have  been  under 
my  command  and  little  expected  themselves  to  be  preferred 
before  me.  I  am  sorry  to  find  myself  avenged ;  this  is  not 
the  vengeance  that  I  want.  I  own  that  I  stand  here,  in  the 
midst  of  alarms,  hoping  to  avenge  myself  by  being  useful. 
I  shall  perhaps  find  a  corner  in  some  redoubt,  or  in  the 
ranks,  if  they  attack,  where  for  the  last  time  I  may  do  my- 
self honour  by  rendering  some  great  service. 

Never  have  I  desired  to  fire  a  shot  within  the  empire. 
I  would  have  left  all  that  to  the  Prussian  protection,  so- 
called  ;  but  I  could  have  won  back  our  captured  countries. 
In  Italy  I  would  never  have  separated  my  columns  to  make 
combined  attacks ;  I  would  never  have  gone  too  far  from 
my  neighbours,  my  supplies,  my  reserves.  Many  scouts, 
patrols,  outposts,  light  troops,  detailed  maps,  friendliness  to 
inhabitants,  activity  in  knowing  every  road,  promptness  in 
surprising,  persistency  in  harassing  the  enemy's  little  out- 
posts to  get  an  air  of  superiority  to  the  enemy,  —  for  the  tone 
which  one  gives  to  a  campaign  does  much,  —  all  this  I 
should  have  watchfully  attended  to. 

Instead  of  that  —  here  I  am,  tranquil  and  happy.  I  enjoy 
the  present  without  going  over  continually  all  that  I  have 
just   said   I  could  have   done,  and  which  might   not  have 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  233 

succeeded  as  well  as  I  imagined.  I  am  here  alone  on  my 
mountain,  writing  in  my  pretty  little  belvedere  that  I  call 
my  little  Beloeil;  and  it  compensates  me  for  that  which 
another  than  myself  might  never  be  consoled  for  having 
lost  forever. 

A  jest  can  do  much  harm.  It  was  a  foolish  speech  that 
kept  me  from  being  employed  in  the  last  war  of  all.  I  said, 
when  they  gave  the  favourite  Godoy  the  title  of  the  Prince 
of  the  Peace,  that  Thugut  ought  in  like  manner  to  be  called 
the  Baron  of  the  War.  That  speech  ilew  Hke  wildfire,  and 
seemed  so  just  (Thugut  having  refused  all  the  advantageous 
conditions  proposed  by  France)  that  he  never  forgave  me 
for  it. 

The  Archduke  John  might,  as  I  told  him,  have  become  a 
Crdqui  through  the  loss  of  the  battle  of  Hohenhnden,  just  as 
the  latter  became  a  great  general  through  Conserbrick.  He 
has  military  erudition,  much  application,  and,  as  I  believe, 
a  strong  character.  If  the  Archduke  Charles  [both  were 
sous  of  the  Emperor  Leopold,  brothers  of  the  Emperor 
Francis]  had  another  physique,  his  perseverance,  his  in- 
telligence, his  firmness  would  have  been  doubled.  He  might 
have  equalled  Condd  and  Eugene.  He  is  brave,  he  is  good, 
he  has  mind,  with  facility  of  conception  and  grand  military 
views ;  but  distrust  of  his  health  makes  his  imagination 
uneasy,  and  often  stops  him  short  under  a  dread  of  never 
being  cured.  May  flattery  not  spoil  this  prince !  He  has 
great  talents  and  he  has  done  great  actions.  I  am  afraid, 
however,  that  the  feebleness  of  his  nerves  will  be  com- 
municated to  his  character.  He  is  a  general  and  a  soldier 
both ;  that  is  what  is  wanted  in  war ;  but  he  is  not  an 
officer,  that  is  what  is  wanted  in  peace;  his  changes  and 
defences  are  not  worth  much  then. 

Francis  II.  has   good   impulses  both  of   heart  and  judg- 


234  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

ment.  "Wliat  he  needs  is  to  be  well  surrounded,  or  else  not 
surrounded  at  all.  He  inclines  towards  justice  and  even 
beneficence,  and  believes  he  has,  and  wishes  to  have,  firm 
ness.  Those  about  him  wish  him  to  be  hard.  An  Emperor 
of  Germany  who  lets  himself  be  made  Emperor  of  Austria 
by  an  Emperor  of  the  French  is  an  officer  who  retires  with 
a  pension. 

When  I  was  in  Berlin  in  1804  the  king  of  Prussia  [Fred' 
erick  William  III.]  received  me  with  cordiality  and  distinc- 
tion at  Potsdam,  where  he  sees  no  one.  How  bitterly  cold  it 
was  at  the  review  of  his  guards  and  garrison,  which  he 
showed  me  !  After  it  he  said :  "  Come  and  warm  yourself  at 
my  fire.  We  will  go  up  this  httle  staircase,  which  is  not 
brilliant."  As  it  certainly  had  no  pretensions  to  beuig  so,  I 
rephed  that  the  safest  and  straightest  way  was  always  the 
best.  "  And  now  we  will  go  and  breakfast  with  the  queen," 
he  said. 

The  Queen  of  Prussia  [Louisa]  is  beautiful  as  the  finest 
day  and  the  purest  sky.  What  loveliness !  what  grace ! 
She  recalls  to  me,  with  features  more  regular  and  a  skin  as 
exquisite,  the  unfortunate  Queen  of  France.  Her  hands  are 
particularly  beautiful ;  they  remind  me  of  Marie-Antoinette's, 
and  she  is  just  about  the  same  age  as  when  I  saw  the  queen 
for  the  last  time  in  1786  — how  smilingly  unconscious  then 
of  what  was  just  before  her !  God  grant  that  no  sorrows 
shall  ever  come  near  this  queen,  who  has  succeeded  her  in 
beauty  and  goodness. 

And  the  sisters  of  the  Queen  of  Prussia,  how  charming 
they  are !  I  went  to  see  that  Court  at  Anspach.  The  king 
is  shy,  without  much  to  say  in  the  beginning,  and  being 
rather  vacant  in  company,  where  he  walked  about  all  by 
himself,  I  attacked  him  in  conversation.  He  took  hold 
of  it  wonderfully  and  talked  war  and  service  well     He  has 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  235 

a  military  air,  precise,  firm,  and  kind ;  and  when  seated  on  a 
stone  on  which  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  breakfasted,  he  pic- 
tured the  scene  himself  unconsciously.  I  spoke  to  him  with 
fire  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  It  seemed  as  if  I  communi- 
cated a  little  to  him,  for  he  had  an  air  of  regretting  that  the 
vile,  distrustful,  criminal  policy  of  all  the  Courts  had  pre- 
vented him  from  doing  what  honour  and  self-interest  dic- 
tated to  the  whole  empire  at  the  time  when  they  allowed  the 
Electorate  of  Hanover  to  be  invaded. 

I  asked  the  King  of  Prussia,  at  the  review  at  Potsdam, 
who  was  a  fine  young  officer  who  defiled  before  us.  "  That 
is  my  brother  William,"  he  replied ;  "  I  will  present  you  to 
him  presently."  He  also  presented  me  to  the  officers  who 
had  fouffht  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  told  me  about  their 
wounds  and  their  actions,  wanted  us  to  talk  together  of  that 
war,  and  listened  w^ith  interest.  I  was  introduced  in  succes- 
sion to  all  the  members  of  the  royal  family.  Prince  Wilham 
has  a  most  charming  face,  and  is  interesting  and  attractive. 
Prince  Henry  not  as  much  so,  but  a  fine  man.  Both  are 
good  and  trusty  and  brave,  I  will  answer  for  it.  Prince 
Louis-Ferdinand  of  Prussia  is  a  hero  of  romance,  history,  and 
fable.  He  would  liave  been  a  demigod,  when  such  existed, — • 
Mars,  Adonis,  and  Alcibiades,  all  in  one  ;  human  kindness, 
grace,  and  ease.  What  military  talent !  what  noble  valour ! 
and  what  humanity ! 

"  I  see,"  Frederick  William  said  to  me,  "  much  cordiality 
between  your  officers  and  mine,  and  it  gives  me  pleasure." 
"  I  wish.  Sire,"  I  replied,  "  that  in  order  to  vex  the  mischief- 
makers  of  Europe,  and  especially  Mischief-Maker  No.  1, 
Bonaparte,  all  the  world  could  hear  you  say  so.  Our  two 
Courts  would  be  more  respected.  I  beg  your  Majesty  to 
hang  the  first  general,  minister,  courtier,  whoever  he  may 
be,  who  dares  to  say  that  we  are  natural  enemies."     "  Oh  !  I 


236  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

am  often  told  that,"  he  replied,  with  charming  bonhomie. 
"1  wish,"  I  continued,  "that  the  emperor  would  do  the 
same,  and  I  shall  tell  him  so  on  my  return  (and  so  I  did) ; 
for  what  is  Germany,"  I  added,  "  if  it  is  not  you,  Sire,  and 
he  ?  Same  language,  same  interests  ;  outside  of  us  there  is 
no  nation.  Mischief-Maker  No.  1  —  the  Elector  of  Hano- 
ver, Treves,  Cologne,  Mayence,  and  in  a  week,  if  he  chooses, 
of  Baden,  Wurtemburg,  and  Bavaria,  whose  troops  he  has 
already  incorporated  with  his  own,  making  those  three  sov- 
ereigns majors  in  his  regiments — is  the  Emperor  of  the 
West." 

The  king  smiled,  but  the  smile  was  bitter.  "  People  have 
confidence  in  M.  de  Hardenberg,"  I  said ;  "  I  think  him  a 
true  gentleman."  "That  is  why  I  took  him,"  he  replied. 
"  Sire,"  I  said,  "  let  your  two  Majesties  clasp  hands  by  letter, 
and  be  ready  in  case  of  attack  or  further  humiliation.  Let 
none  of  your  ministers,  nor  any  of  the  cabinets  know  of  this, 
but  send  sealed  orders  to  every  Prussian  and  Austrian  gen- 
eral on  the  frontiers,  not  to  be  opened  till  they  are  told  to 
open  them  ;  those  orders  to  contain  your  Majesty's  com- 
mands to  march  the  Prussian  troops  in  an  hour,  and  sweep 
the  enemy  out  of  the  Electorate  of  Hanover,  while  the 
emperor  gives  the  same  order  to  recover  Switzerland." 

Young  Frederick  William  HI.  did  not  smile  this  time ;  he 
approved,  reflected,  and  seemed  very  grave  for  a  moment. 
Then  he  said:  "You  saw  what  I  have  just  done  for  Sir 
George  Rumbold  [the  English  minister  at  Hamburg,  im- 
prisoned in  1804]  ?"  "Yes,  Sire,"  I  said,  "  and  I  wish  they 
had  hung  him,  to  make  you  and  all  Europe  more  angry." 
The  king  gave  a  short  laugh,  and  then  said:  "  I  am  sorry 
those  devils  of  Englishmen  committed  the  meanness  of  seizing 
the  Spanish  vessels  without  a  declaration  of  war.  There  's 
another  piece  of  luck  for  tliat  man  "  (meaning  Bonaparte). 


.^Z^oi^oc<i.<xy  .^..^^^.tee^tyyO^  (.y^. 


'?*^^</^<^z- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  237 

"  Yes,  Sire,"  I  said,  "  but  it  will  not  counterbalance  the  Due 
d'Enghien." 

One  is  less  free  with  a  king  at  the  head  of  his  Potsdam 
garrison  than  with  the  same  king  roaming  about  the  world, 
whom  one  sees  in  his  bath,  and  who,  while  professing  to  be 
a  knight,  has  been  nothing  up  to  this  time  but  a  knight 
errant.  That  is  what  made  me  say  to  him  one  day  in  Ber- 
lin, when  he  had  wearied  me  with  his  chivalry :  "  Sire,  your 
intentions  are  superb,  but  they  will  not  be  executed  unless 
you  combine  with  your  three  comrades,  and  say :  '  On  the 
honour  of  gentlemen  let  us  swear  an  eternal  alliance.'" 

It  is  now  two  months  since  I  talked  with  him  thus  in 
Berlin.  Every  one  was  hot  enough  then ;  so  they  were  in 
Petersburg,  and  nearly  so  in  Vienna.  Miilleudorf,  a  brave 
and  charming  octogenarian  with  whom  I  drank  three 
bottles  of  champagne  daily,  was  even  more  so  than  all  the 
young  men.  What  has  come  of  it?  Paimbold  is  given 
up;  everybody  has  returned  to  ice,  even  about  the  new 
kingdoms  that  are  being  formed.  In  war,  politics,  and  love 
if  the  right  moment  is  missed  it  never  comes  again.  So 
much  the  worse  for  Europe. 

Bonaparte  is  all  things  in  one :  C?esar,  Alexander,  Pyrrhus, 

and  Scipio.     He  is  a   prodigious  being.     But  there   is   not 

a  word  of  his   quoted  which  shows  either  feeling  or  eleva- 

tion  of  mind.     When  I  read  how  he  loves  ceremonies  and 

to  be  arbitrary  he  makes  me  think  of  Paul  I.     Why  does 

he  have  a  wife  and  children  ?   they  are  not  for  such  as  he. 

If  he  took  for  himself  only  one  hundred  thousand  francs 

a  year,  and  had  no  other  shows  than  reviews  (of   which  I 

approve),  if  he  listened,  if  he  answered,  he  would  be  one  of 

the  greatest  men  that  ever  lived.     The  Due  d'Enghien  has 

killed  him ;  vanity  has  killed  his  glory ;  his  imperial  mania 

has  lowered  the  Alps ;  Saint-Cloud  has  destroyed  Marengo ; 
Ver.  7  Mem.  16 


238  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

his  throne  has  toppled  over  his  tent ;  fable  has  crushed 
history. 

In  1807  I  went  to  Dresden  out  of  curiosity  to  see  him. 
This  journey  and  what  I  said  of  it  was  not  viewed  with 
favour  in  Vienna,  although  I  did  not  allow  myself  to  be 
presented  to  him. 

[The  following  letter  gives  an  account  of  this  event.] 

The  Prince  de  Ligne  to  Prince  Auguste  d'Arenherg. 

ToPLiTZ,  July  20,  1807. 

Well,  here  I  am  !  I  have  seen  him,  and  for  fear  of  being 
partial,  having  perhaps  been  pretty  well  treated  by  him 
(though  he  does  not  look  obliging),  I  am  the  only  one  of 
the  reigning  or  ex-reigning  princes  who  has  not  been  pre- 
sented. They  amuse  me,  those  confederated  princes,  with 
whom  I  dine  daily.  He  has  forced  them  to  come  here,  all 
but  your  nephew  Prosper,  who  is  making  war,  and  the 
reigning  Prince  of  Lichtenstem,  who  is  cutting  his  teeth. 
I  told  them  they  looked  to  me  as  if  they  were  there  in  the 
valley  of  Jehoshaphat  awaiting  the  Last  Judgment ;  to  which 
they  responded  with  a  big  empire  laugh  in  chorus,  and  said, 
"  Touchours  aimaple  ! " 

I  cannot  say  of  Jmn  what  Ali  said  of  Azor,  either  from 
his  face,  or  the  intonations  of  his  voice,  or  his  expression, 
for  I  listened  to  what  he  said  in  the  gallery,  rubbing 
shoulders  with  the  crowd.  But  he  has  the  air  of  a  man 
of  war,  with  firmness  and  deliberation  rather  than  genius, 
of  which  he  has  never  had  the  aberrations.  A  Saxon 
lieutenant-colonel  who  never  left  him  at  Friedland,  told  me 
that  he  was  on  foot  upon  a  height  under  fire  of  a  battery, 
whence  he  saw  everything  so  well  that,  pencil  in  hand,  he 
wrote  his  orders  on  cards  which  liis  aides-de-camp  carried 
to  the  generals.     Suddenly  he   saw  a   movement   that  the 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE.  239 

Eiissians  wanted  to  make.  "  Ha ! "  he  said,  "  I  tliink  they 
mean  to  manoeuvre;  I'll  show  them  tactics;"  and  with  that 
he  instantly  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity. 

On  arriving  he  bathed ;  during  which  time  he  sent  off 
various  couriers  and  talked  with  several  of  the  ministers ; 
the  next  day  he  was  on  horseback  at  five  in  the  morning, 
without  other  suite  than  a  few  aides-de-camp  (for  he  has 
no  guard),  and  was  off  to  the  hospital  to  talk  to  his  wounded 
of  the  Prussian  campaign ;  then  to  see  the  fortifications, 
and  afterwards  the  cadets,  to  whom  he  sent  no  notice  of 
his  coming,  and  whom  he  questioned  and  corrected  on  very 
difficult  points  of  mathematics. 

T  met  Talleyrand  just  as  he  arrived,  and  went  up  the 
stairs  faster  than  he.  He  had  not  stopped  a  moment 
between  Konigsberg  and  Dresden.  You  can  imagine  his 
pleasure  at  being  received  by  me ;  for  he  and  you  and  I  are 
the  only  Frenchmen  now  left  in  the  world,  and  you  and  I 
are  not  Frenchmen.  He  would  rejoice  if  you  were  here  too. 
They  served  us  at  a  long  table  with  thirty  covers,  where 
we  supped  Ute-h-tUe,  and  at  one  in  the  morning  I  left  him, 
out  of  discretion  but  against  his  will,  and  came  back  here. 

He  told  me  that  the  Emperor  Napoleon  (I  suppose  I  may 
permit  myself  to  call  him  so)  was  never  so  great  as  at 
Osterode,  where,  with  nothing  to  eat  but  bad  lobsters,  in 
a  horrible  house  surrounded  with  the  carcasses  of  men  and 
horses  covered  with  manure,  everything  against  him,  even 
his  own  army  (though  no  one  dared  to  show  it),  he  swore 
to  suffer  all  in  order  to  humiliate  Eussia. 

They  have  been  very  well  satisfied  with  the  frank  be 
haviour  of  Poniatowski,  who  could  not  have  been  blamed 
even  if  things  had  turned  out  differently.  He  is  expected 
to  arrive  in  Dresden  to-day  with  Molachuski,  Stanislas 
Potocki,  etc.,  for  the  organization  of  Poland,  in  which  they 


240  MEMOIR   OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE, 

mean  to  mix  a  little  of  the  constitution  of  May  3  with  the 
sovereignty  granted  to  the  King  of  Saxony  under  the  title 
of  Duke  of  Warsaw. 

That  name  made  me  laugh,  and  I  asked  Talleyrand  if  it 
was  a  copy  of  the  Duke  of  Dantzig.  He  told  me  they  had 
given  it  out  of  delicacy  to  us,  in  order  that  the  malcontents 
of  Galicia  might  not  think  the  kingdom  of  Poland  was  re- 
established and  begin  to  ask  concessions  of  us. 

Jerome  is  King  of  Westphalia  and  has  the  possessions  of 
the  King  of  Prussia,  and  of  Hesse,  Fulda,  and  Brunswick  ; 
pensions  are  given  to  the  three  latter  princes.  Talleyrand 
is  expecting  Vincent  [Baron  Vincent,  Austrian  ambassador 
to  France]  to  treat  of  Braunau  and  other  such  matters.  He 
says  he  is  under  the  greatest  obligations  to  him  for  his 
prudence  and  the  way  he  has  kept  at  arm's-length  all 
bitterness  and  semi-suggestions  of  war  which  threatened  to 
embroil  everything. 

The  King  of  Prussia  at  Tilsit,  with  the  Legion  of  honour 
and  a  moustache,  blushed  and  stammered  and  looked  like 
an  aide-de-camp  of  the  Emperor  Alexander.  The  latter 
said  on  the  day  of  the  signature :  "  This  is  the  anniversary 
of  Pultawa ;  a  day  of  good  omen  to  the  empire  of  Russia." 

Napoleon,  who  likes  better  to  magnify  himself  than  to 
increase  his  territory,  to  conquer  rather  than  acquire,  pre- 
feiTcd  that  interview  to  marching  to  Piiga  on  the  one  hand, 
and  Grodno  on  the  other.  I  don't  know  what  he  will  do 
or  will  not  do  about  the  Turks.  But  he  said :  "  I  wished 
much  good  to  Selim,  because  he  was  my  intimate  friend." 

Alexander  embraced  Oubril  on  liis  arrival,  and  when  the 
English  cabal  caused  him  to  be  dismissed  he  gave  him  a 
pension  of  twenty  thousand  roubles  "  for  good  luck."  Just 
make  coalitions  after  that !  If  we  had  only  so  much  as 
stirred,  the  French  would  have  made  peace  with  llussia. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE   LIGNE.  241 

I  cannot  see  liow  it  is  that  pretended  zealots  regret  the 
exhaustion  of  Eussia  and  the  nulHty  and  abasement  of 
Prussia,  which  is  now  reduced  to  fourth  rank.  However, 
I  do  not  think  this  new  mapping  out  of  Europe  very  dan- 
gerous. It  will  not  last  longer  than  its  author.  A  pen 
made  it,  and  a  pen  will  unmake  it  if  some  one  knows 
how  to  hold  it. 

They  are  marching  Spaniards  against  the  King  of  Sweden, 
who  came  to  demand  that  Louis  XVIII.  should  be  restored. 
England  is  not  thought  of  at  all ;  she  can  do  what  she 
likes. 

People  always  say  when  they  want  to  finish  a  letter  that 
the  post  is  just  starting.  I  do  not  want  to  finish  mine,  but 
the  reason  for  ending  is  true  this  time,  and  I  can  only  tell 
you,  dear  contemporary,  how  dear  you  are  to  me  by  taste 
and  good  taste,  and  through  gratitude  for  a  friendship  in 
which  I  trust  with  very   tender  and  lasting  attachment. 

Prince  de  Ligne. 

When  Paul  I.  was  Grand-Duke  of  Eussia,  I  stood  as  well 
with  him,  and  this  is  very  remarkable,  as  I  did  with  his 
mother,  whom  I  often  reproached  for  not  drawing  him  nearer 
to  her.  He  always  behaved  in  her  presence  like  a  courtier 
under  a  cloud.  He  used  to  tell  me  evil  things  of  his  nation 
and  declare  they  were  tricking  the  empress ;  he  really  be- 
lieved that  all  we  saw  and  did  in  Taurica  was  a  fable.  I 
said  to  him  in  reply :  "  There  certainly  were  some  shams 
about  it,  but  also  a  great  deal  of  reality.  How  can  you 
expect,  monseigneur,  that  a  woman  should  fathom  every- 
thing, climb  mountains,  and  look  on  the  other  side  to  see  the 
reverse  of  the  picture."  "  Of  course  it  is  impossible,"  he  said; 
"  and  that  is  why  these  beggars  of  Eussians  want  to  be  gov- 
erned by  a  woman."     The  grand-duchess  lowered  her  eyes 


242  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

and  we  were  all  three  rather  embarrassed  for  some  minutes 
at  the  remark  having  escaped  him. 

By  nature  the  grand-duke  had  gentle  tastes,  and  especially 
those  of  a  country  life.  But  as  soon  as  the  fancy  to  make 
war  in  times  of  peace  seized  him  he  went  with  great  strides 
into  madness,  though  never  with  the  cruelty  of  his  father. 
He  was  gay  in  society,  true  to  his  friends,  and  had  much 
liveliness  of  mind.  It  was  just  before  his  travels  that  he 
first  began  to  show  suspicions,  especially  towards  his  mother. 
He  thought  she  wanted  to  keep  him  out  of  Eussia.  His 
suspicions  of  being  poisoned  in  Italy,  and  even  by  me  at 
Bruges,  when  the  beer  disagreed  with  him  and  gave  him  the 
colic,  are  well  known.  He  was  just  as  amiable  to  me  after- 
wards, though  more  distrustful,  and  less  just  on  the  parade 
ground,  and  even  in  society  some  years  later.  When  the 
empress  spoke  to  him  he  would  make  a  cold,  respectful  bow 
and  retire.  "  Why,  monseigneur,"  I  said  to  him,  "  do  you 
put  on  that  air  of  a  disgraced  courtier  ?  See  the  pleasure 
the  grand-duchess,  who  is  an  angel,  gives  the  empress  when 
she  answers  her  with  that  winning  manner.  The  empress 
is  at  her  ease  with  her;  but  you  are  neither  at  your  ease 
yourself  nor  will  you  let  her  be." 

He  showed  me  the  letters  he  had  received  from  M.  de  La 
Harpe,  —  those  that  he  was  then  receiving,  and  all  he  had 
received  for  six  years  past.  They  had  put  him  so  much  au 
courant  of  everything  that  when  he  went  to  Paris  he  made 
no  blunders  about  names  or  things.  The  empress  used  to 
laugh  a  little  at  the  correspondence  whenever  La  Harpe, 
quitting  his  literary  people,  began  to  write  about  Turkey  and 
politics.  She  said  to  me  one  day,  "  M.  de  La  Harpe  is  teach- 
ing monseigneur  to  reign ; "  and  then  she  added  a  fact  only 
too  well  proved  later  :  "  These  gentlemen,  these  men  of  letters 
know  nothing  about  governing,  but  that 's  their  way." 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  243 

Two-thirds  of  Catherine  and  one-third  of  Paul,  before  the 
latter  became  hopelessly  insane,  would  have  made  the  greatest, 
best,  and  most  fortunate  of  sovereigns.  I  thmk  he  always 
felt  grateful  to  me  for  not  having  profited  by  the  intimate 
friendship  and  confidence  of  his  mother  to  abuse  it  and  ob- 
tain the  very  considerable  amount  of  the  claim  of  the  Mas- 
salskis  which  had  been  turned  over  to  me  ;  and  this  it  was, 
I  think,  which  induced  him  to  grant  me  a  pension  of  a  thou- 
sand ducats.  To  give  an  idea  of  the  love  of  justice  which 
possessed  that  extraordinary  being,  who  was  driven  out  of 
his  mind,  I  shall  cite  his  action  on  that  occasion.  I  wrote 
to  him  after  his  accession,  and  mentioned  that,  as  it  was  very 
easy  to  show  delicacy  when  one  was  rich  and  prosperous,  I 
had  never  asked  for  the  three  thousand  ducats  which  M.  de 
^tackelberg  (the  only  minister  who  had  cognizance  of  the 
claim)  had  awarded  me,  although  it  was  actually  the  cause 
of  my  first  journey  to  Russia ;  and  I  also  said  that  no  record 
had  been  kept  of  that  award.  Fortunately  for  me,  the  old 
ambassador  went  to  Petersburg.  The  emperor  made  in- 
quiries of  him,  and  the  following  day  Stackelberg  died  of 
apoplexy.  By  the  next  post  I  received  my  pension.  So  that, 
with  that  and  what  I  derived  from  Iphigenia's  land  in  Tau- 
rica,  I  have  more  money  from  Russia  which  I  never  served, 
and  more  distinction  from  Prussia  which  I  served  very  ill, 
than  from  Austria  which  I  have  served  only  too  well. 

I  have  seen  in  all  their  brilliancy  the  lands  and  the  Courts 
where  enjoyment  and  splendour  most  abounded.  For  in- 
stance, that  of  the  last  Saxon  King  of  Poland  [Augustus  III.], 
or  to  speak  more  correctly  that  of  the  Comte  de  Brlihl.  I 
saw  the  last  magnificences  of  that  satrap,  w4io,  to  ride  one 
hundred  yards,  was  attended  by  a  hundred  palatines,  starosts, 
castillans,  cordons  hhus,  and  quantities  of  princes  alhed  to 
the  house  of  Saxony. 


244  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

I  have  seen  Louis  XV.  with  the  grand  air  of  Louis  XIV., 
and  Mme.  de  Pompadour  assuming  that  of  Mme.  de  Montes- 
pan.  I  have  seen  three  weeks  of  magic  fetes  at  Chantilly ; 
theatricals  and  sojourns  at  Villers-Cotterets  [country  seat  of 
the  Due  d'Orl^ans],  where  all  that  was  most  agreeable  assem- 
bled ;  I  have  seen  the  enchanted  voyages  to  I'lsle-Adam,  the 
delights  of  the  little  Trianon,  the  promenades  on  the  terraces, 
the  music  in  the  Orangerie,  the  magnificences  of  Fontaine- 
bleau,  the  hunts  of  Saint-Hubert  and  Choisy,  —  I  have  seen 
them  all  diminish  and  perish  utterly. 

I  have  seen  to  their  very  last  the  noble  days  of  the  house 
of  Lorraine,  which  did  not  fall  from  so  high  a  place,  it  is 
true,  but  which  still  existed  in  all  its  splendour  to  the  days 
of  tlie  little  King  Stanislas  I.  [Leczinski],  who  inherited  the 
honhomic  and  the  jovial  delights  of  the  old  Court  of  the 
dukes  of  that  province. 

I  have  seen  the  grandest  magnificences  of  Europe  in  an 
icy  climate  where  Catherine  IL  combined  the  luxury  of 
Louis  XIV.  with  that  of  Asia,  the  Greeks,  the  Eomans,  and 
the  Arabian  Nights. 

I  have  seen  Potsdam,  Sans-Souci,  and  glory ;  a  military 
reign  uniting  an  august  Court  with  a  stern  headquarters. 

I  have  seen  disappear,  with  Prince  Charles  of  Lorraine,  the 
charming  Court  of  the  Low  Countries,  gay,  safe,  agreeable, 
playful,  convivial,  hunting,  breakfasting :  I  have  seen  all 
perish ;  even  the  little  Court  of  the  last  Prince  de  la  Tour 
(which  albeit  ridiculous  was  none  the  less  magnificent),  and 
of  Manheim,  Munich,  Erlangen  (in  the  days  of  the  last  Mar- 
grave of  Baireuth),  and  Stuttgard,  the  centre  of  fetes,  pleas- 
ures, and  ceremonies,  —  all,  I  have  seen  them  all  disappear ; 
even  the  little  Court  of  Bonn,  and  that  of  Lifege  so  brilliant 
under  the  princes  of  Bavaria. 

But  nowhere  have  I  seen  substituted  anything  that  takes 


MEMOIR  OF   THE   PKINCE   DE   EIGNE.  245 

the  place  of  those  great  homes  of  the  great  seigneurs.  They 
had  ceased,  it  is  true,  to  have  their  pages,  guards,  and  gentle- 
men-at-arms ;  but  they  still  had  their  footmen,  their  liorses, 
their  tables  open  to  all,  and  their  splendid  entertainments. 

Life  is  a  circle ;  it  often  ends  very  much  as  it  began ;  the 
two  childhoods  are  a  proof  of  this ;  only  the  interval  between 
the  two  presents  any  difference.  My  autumn,  prolonged 
by  my  constitution  and  character,  impinging  on  my  winter, 
is  ending  like  my  spring,  owing  in  this  case  to  an  unexpected 
circumstance,  namely,  a  revolution.  Creditors  and  money- 
lenders are  in  my  antechamber  as  they  were  in  the  days 
when  I  was  forced  to  live  on  the  meagre  paternal  pension. 
Sums  of  money  which  I  borrow  on  some  pretext  of  splen- 
dour, are  used  to  meet  real  wants ;  very  much  as  they  were 
when  I  was  twenty,  and  lost  at  faro  the  half  of  wliat  I 
borrowed.  So  here  I  am,  a  poor  gentleman  of  exj^edients, 
just  as  I  began.  I  have  known  many  who  rose  from  nothing 
to  be  great  seigneurs ;  with  me,  through  external  circum- 
stances, it  has  been  the  reverse. 

Another  proof  that  life  is  a  circle :  I  have  a  donkey,  a 
sheep,  and  a  goat,  who  come  and  breakfast  with  me  when  I 
am  at  my  Eefuge.  They  almost  climb  upon  my  bed;  I 
think  myself  lucky  when  they  only  put  their  fore  paws  up 
to  beg  for  bread.  If  I  clap  my  hands  they  follow  me  at  a 
gallop  through  the  woods.  When  I  was  a  boy  of  twelve  I 
had  a  crow,  a  sheep,  and  a  fox,  who  all  three  consoled  me 
for  the  severity  of  masters  always  displeased  with  me.  The 
crow  pecked  the  legs  of  the  dancing-master  —  he  was  the 
one  I  hated  most.  The  fox  was  a  rascal,  who  took  the  cotton 
from  my  governor's  ink-bottle  to  smear  his  papers ;  and  one 
day  he  spoilt  the  face  of  an  ancestor  of  our  family,  whose 
portrait  was  lying  on  the  floor  while  my  father  was  arrang- 
ing the  room.     The  latter  was  frightfully  angry,  because,  he 


246.  MEMOIR   OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

said,  my  fox  had  intentionally  insulted  his  great-grand- 
father. And  thus  our  life  goes  round  in  a  circle,  and  the 
beginning  is  the  end,  and  the  end  is  the  beginning. 

One  might  perhaps  wish  to  grow  old,  not  to  live  but  to  die, 
for  an  old  man  goes  out  like  a  candle. 

How  many  reflections  this  book,  the  confidant  of  all  my 
thoughts,  has  led  me  to  make  upon  myself.  I  have  written 
in  it  almost  ever  since  I  came  into  the  world,  certainly  ever 
since  I  learned  to  write.  The  space  within  is  growing 
smaller  by  degrees.  But  I  write  so  little  and  at  such  long 
intervals  that  often  I  do  not  remember  what  is  in  it.  In 
fact,  a  charming  woman,  full  of  intelligence,  to  whom  I 
lent  it,  defeated  me  a  while  ago  with  one  of  my  own 
arguments  and  laughed  at  me  well  for  not  remembering  it 
was  mine. 

Perhaps  I  might  here  abridge  what  I  have  written  into  a 
few  short  words :  Calmness  within  one's  self ;  to  rightly  live, 
and  to  die  well. 

Life  does  visible  homage  to  Providence  in  some  things ; 
for  instance :  the  effect  of  time.  That  is  why  the  ancients 
raised  a  statue  to  Time  with  this  inscription :  "  To  him  who 
consoles."  Without  that  quality  what  would  be  the  result 
of  great  sorrows  ?  Could  men  survive  them  ?  If  the  morrow, 
without  our  perceiving  it,  did  not  already  bring  some  change, 
should  we  bear  up  ?  We  find  that  though  we  thought  and 
wished  to  die  at  the  death  of  a  wife,  a  father,  a  daughter 
(most  terrible  of  all),  or  a  mistress,  we  have  insensibly  re- 
turned to  our  way  of  life,  our  conversations,  our  gayety. 
The  more  or  less  time  the  consolation  requires  comes  from 
the  greater  or  less  sensitiveness  of  our  souls,  or  rather  of  our 
organs.  But  without  this  consolation  our  lives  would  be  too 
cruel ;  the  sum  of  ills  would  far  exceed  the  sum  of  good.  — 

The  above  words  were  written  as  a  matter  of  theory  in 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE.  247 

days  of  happiness.  Yes,  undoubtedly  the  sum  of  ills  sur- 
passes that  of  good.  He  whom  we  mourn  was  a  glory  to  see, 
to  embrace,  to  admire :  he  was  all  that  was  bravest  in  the 
world  and  most  distinguished.  Great  God !  what  a  blow 
was  that  to  learn  that  earth  had  lost  him !  —  Yes,  we  recover 
our  senses  and  our  way  of  living.  But  is  there  a  day  when 
a  place,  a  thought,  a  memory,  his  name,  a  resemblance,  does 
not  plunge  the  dagger  again  into  the  breast  ? 

No,  time  does  not  lieal.  It  only  closes  the  wound ;  it  puts 
a  compress  upon  it,  which  a  trifle  lifts ;  a  word,  an  inflection, 
the  tone  of  a  voice,  a  gesture,  a  glance,  a  mere  nothing,  cause 
torrents  of  tears  to  flow  when  we  are  thus  reminded.  The 
nerves  are  then  like  an  instrument  which  the  wind,  or  the 
noise  of  a  door  will  vibrate  into  sound ;  it  is  a  sort  of  mag- 
netism. According  to  the  disposition  we  are  in,  and  the 
manner  in  which  we  learn  the  death  of  one  we  love,  our  lives 
may  depend.  It  is  a  chance  if  we  do  not  die  upon  the  spot. 
Sometimes  we  cannot  believe  our  misfortune ;  we  think  we 
dream ;  we  await  the  one  who  has  passed  out  of  sight.  Alas ! 
an  icy  cold  succeeds  this  species  of  delirium :  a  total  suspen- 
sion of  our  faculties,  a  forgetfulness  of  all,  of  ourselves  even ; 
and  then  a  dreadful  weight,  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  rid 
our  souls.  Anxiety  may  banish  sleep,  but  happy  they  who 
have  causes  for  anxiety !  When  the  worst  has  come,  the 
body,  exhausted  by  the  struggle,  takes  a  sort  of  rest.  But, 
for  one  quarter  of  an  hour's  sleep.  Great  God!  what  an 
awakening !  Before  we  have  roused  our  still  numbed  senses 
we  know  we  are  unhappy ;  and  when  we  begin  to  feel  the 
cause,  when  we  learn  it  as  it  were  anew,  that  state  is  worse 
than  death. 

[From  this  point  the  picture  of  the  prince's  last  years  must 
be  continued  in  the  words  of  those  who  knew  him  and  were 


248  MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

with  liiiii  during  that  period,  namely :  Comte  Ouvaroff, 
attached  to  the  Eussian  legation  in  Vienna  in  1807 ;  the 
Due  de  Broglie,  son-in-law  of  Mme.  de  Stael,  who  was  sent 
to  Vienna  after  the  battle  of  Wagram  in  1809 ;  and  the 
Comte  de  la  Garde,  who  was  present  during  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  in  1814,  the  period  of  the  prince's  death.  They  have 
all  given  very  lifelike  pictures  of  him.  The  works  from 
which  these  pictures  are  taken  will  be  found  described  in  the 
Ust  of  authorities  in  Vol.  I.  of  this  edition.  Comte  Ouvaroff 
speaks  first.] 

It  was  in  1807,  when  attached  to  the  Eussian  embassy 
in  Vienna,  that  I  first  had  occasion  to  see  the  Prince  de 
Ligne.  Young  in  years,  but  by  tradition  and  taste  passion- 
ately in  love  with  what  is  now  called  the  ancien  regime,  I 
could  not  be  presented  to  the  veteran  of  European  elegance 
without  feeling  a  sort  of  enthusiastic  quiver.  I  had  so  often 
heard  his  name  quoted,  I  had  read  it  on  aU  the  pages  of  the 
eighteenth  century  among  those  of  Voltaire,  Catherine,  Fred- 
erick and  the  Emperor  Joseph  ! 

A  man  who  for  so  long  a  time  had  made  the  world  talk 
of  him  seemed  to  me,  a  mere  lad,  as  if  he  were,  in  all  proba- 
bility, a  dilapidated  relic,  a  sort  of  decrepit  Nestor.  Imagine 
therefore  my  astonishment  when  I  found  the  Prince  de  Ligne, 
at  seventy-two  years  of  age,  in  very  nearly  all  the  vigour  of 
his  best  years.  Tall  in  figure,  and  very  erect,  having  pre- 
served his  eyesight,  his  hearing,  and  above  all  a  good  diges- 
tion, much  sought  after  in  society,  devoted  to  women, 
resplendent  in  elegant  frivolity,  the  prince  piqued  himself 
on  treating  young  men  as  comrades,  and  the  delight  with 
which  I  found  myself  admitted  to  their  number  can  be 
imagined. 

The  prince  had  preserved  his  hair  and  a  great  deal  of  it, 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   I)E   LIGNE.  249 

whicli  he  wore  powdered,  so  that  his  handsome  face,  though 
a  trifle  wrinkled,  showed  no  signs  of  decay.  His  military 
uniform  became  him,  and  the  cross  of  Maria  Theresa  hung 
nobly  on  his  breast,  together  with  the  Order  of  the  Golden 
Fleece.  He  had  lost  part  of  his  property  in  the  Belgian 
revolutions,  and  had  spent  the  rest.  Out  of  an  immense 
fortune,  part  of  wliich  he  had  settled  on  his  youngest  son, 
the  prince  had  only  kept  a  modest  little  house  on  the  ram- 
parts of  Vienna,  called,  by  courtesy,  the  hotel  de  Ligne. 
There  were  assembled  every  evening  his  charming  family 
of  two  married  daughters,  and  a  third  who  was  then  a 
chanoinesse;  thither  flocked  nightly  all  that  Vienna  could 
offer  that  was  choicest,  —  old  ladies  of  exquisite  tone  and 
grand  manners,  or  young  ones  full  of  charm  and  attraction  ; 
sometimes  a  knot  of  Englishmen  who  (as  the  prince  said) 
were  travelling  for  their  own  pleasure  not  that  of  others ; 
sometimes  a  group  of  Eussians,  whom  he  welcomed  in  pref- 
erence. Very  few  Germans  ever  came  there,  unless  they 
were  relics  of  the  old  days  of  Joseph  II.  or  certain  great 
seigneurs  of  the  Low  Countries,  exiled  liked  Virgil's  sage, 
or,  like  the  host  himself,  far  from  their  domestic  penates. 

To  these  always  eager  visitors  were  added  a  few  distin- 
guished emigres:  Comte  Koger  de  Damas,  the  Marquis  de 
Bonnay,  with  others  like  them ;  and  amid  these  varied  groups 
a  man  was  seen  with  fiery  eyes  and  a  swarthy  Southern  skin. 
This  was  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  whose  charm  of  conversation,  very 
different  from  that  of  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  drew  every  one 
about  him,  while  his  original  mind,  passionate  and  wholly 
of  the  present  day,  brought  finely  out  the  eminently  eigh- 
teenth-century mind  of  the  Prince  de  Ligne. 

In  that  little  gray  salon,  modestly  furnished,  and  so  nar- 
row that  it  was  difficult  to  find  standing-room  when  the 
company  assembled,  there  appeared  one  evening  Mme.  de 


250  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

Staiil,  a  radiant  meteor,  stimulating  public  curiosity,  from 
whom  we  later  drew  much  pleasure.  At  first  the  Prince  de 
Ligne  was  not  much  inclined  in  her  favour.  The  dramatic? 
exaltation  of  Corinne  seemed  to  him  slightly  ridiculous,  and 
her  innovating  ways  as  to  salon  doctrines  were  repugnant 
to  him.  Moreover,  in  France  before  the  Eevolution,  he  had 
seen  little  of  M.  Necker,  and  liked  him  still  less.  Mme. 
Necker  had  bored  him  intensely,  and  his  only  remembrance 
of  the  Swedish  ambassadress  was  that  of  a  woman  whose 
ughness  was  not  doubtful  and  who  meddled  with  politics 
and  "made  phrases."  Deeply  attached  to  Queen  Marie- 
Antoinette  and  chivalrously  in  love  with  her,  any  contact 
with  the  Genevese  minister  must  have  been  displeasing  to 
the  Prince  de  Ligne.  It  needed  all  the  amenity  of  his 
nature  and  the  exquisite  delicacy  of  his  manners  to  admit 
in  Mme.  de  Stael  (a  proscribed  fugitive  in  1808)  a  rare  and 
exceptional  nature,  and  one  which,  by  the  eminent  qualities 
of  her  heart  even  more  than  by  the  lofty  aims  of  her  mind, 
had  a  right  to  universal  good-will. 

By  a  mutual  unspoken  compromise  of  good  taste,  never 
was  a  serious  word  on  the  events  of  1789  exchanged  between 
them.  TJiere,  certainly,  was  absolute  incompatibility ;  never 
could  they  have  agreed  on  any  point,  no  matter  what,  that 
concerned  the  Ptcvolution.  Prince  Auguste  d'Aremberg 
(Comte  de  la  March),  the  friend  of  Mirabeau  and  the  Due 
d'Orldans,  who  sympathized  on  those  grounds  with  the 
ideas  of  Mme.  de  Stael  while  his  social  position  and  ante- 
cedents drew  him  to  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  seemed  the  point 
of  intersection  between  this  pair  of  opposing  minds,  the  god 
Thermes,  as  it  were,  watching  that  the  territory  of  both 
should  be  scrupulously  respected. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  express  the  infinite  pleasure  we 
all  derived  from  the  charming  spectacle  of  this  intercourse. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  251 

The  Prince  de  Ligne  was  never  more  delicately  witty,  more 
winning,  more  felicitous,  and  never  was  Mme.  de  Stael  so 
brilliant ;  although  in  the  prince  there  was  always  a  faint, 
imperceptible  tone  of  irony,  which,  without  ever  wounding 
Mme.  de  Stael,  presented  a  kind  of  passive  resistance,  which 
was  not  without  attraction  for  her.  When  Corinne  soared 
to  the  seventh  heaven  with  an  explosion  of  inimitable  elo- 
quence the  Prince  de  Ligne  would,  little  by  httle,  lead  back 
to  a  Paris  salon.  When  he  himself  would  frivolously  in- 
dulge in  the  perfumed  talk  of  Versailles  or  of  Trianon,  Mme. 
de  Stael,  with  brief  and  concise  words  after  the  manner  of 
Tacitus,  would  allude  to  the  end  of  that  society,  condemned 
to  die  by  its  own  hand.  Spectators  of  the  scene  were  drawn 
first  to  one  and  then  to  the  other ;  but  no  one  would  have 
wished  to  help  them  to  agree,  of  such  good  taste  and  good 
quality  was  the  struggle.  Let  me  hasten  to  say  that  in 
these  charming  combats  there  was  nothing  prepared,  nothing 
artificial ;  here  were  two  different  natures  exhibiting  them- 
selves spontaneously ;  two  able  players  tossing  back  the 
ball  from  one  to  the  other  courteously.  Lively  sudden  ex- 
pressions, easy  talk,  almost  careless,  from  one  to  the  other 
as  it  came,  extreme  care  to  avoid  all  asperity  of  speech, 
mutual  bonhomie,  if  I  may  use  the  word,  —  these  were  the 
leading  features  of  those  delightful  fireworks  whose  wonder- 
ful rockets  still  linger  in  our  memory. 

The  Prhice  de  Ligne  and  Mme.  de  Staiil  were  both  pas- 
sionately fond  of  playmg  comedies,  and  both  played  them 
very  badly.  The  prince  took  no  more  important  part  than 
that  of  the  notary  who  comes  in  at  the  denouement,  or  the 
lacquey  who  brings  letters,  but  whenever  he  did  appear  he 
always  persisted  in  remaining  on  the  stage,  saying  in  a  low 
voice,  "  I  am  not  in  your  way,  am  I  ? "  After  Mme.  de 
StaeTs   arrival  several  plays  were  set  going ;   among  them, 


252  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE   LIGNE. 

"  Les  Femmes  Savantes,"  in  which  she  took  the  famous  part 
of  Philamiute.  Comte  Louis  Cobenzl,  friend  and  compatriot 
of  the  Prince  de  Ligne  and  well-known  for  his  embassies 
to  Eussia  and  France,  played  Chrysale  with  a  talent  and  fire 
that  might  have  made  a  consummate  actor  envious.  His 
sister,  Mme.  de  Eombeck,  a  warm  friend  of  the  Prince  de 
Ligne  and  an  inimitable  and  gracious  mixture  of  heart  and 
mind,  of  gayety  and  reason,  played  Martine,  while  Arthur 
Potocki  and  I,  being  the  youngest  of  the  troupe,  were  rigged 
in  a  wonderful  way  in  huge  perukes,  and  thus  disguised, 
Arthur  played  Vadius,  and  I  Trissotin.  The  piece  was  per- 
formed with  some  completeness  and  gave  pleasure.  Mme. 
de  Stael  did  not  escape  without  a  few  covert  and  mischievous 
allusions.  At  another  time  she  played  a  piece  of  her  own, 
called  "  Hagar  in  the  Desert ; "  it  is  printed,  I  think,  in  her 
collected  works.  The  Prince  de  Ligne,  taking  me  aside  after 
the  performance  was  over,  whispered :  "  Cher  petit "  (he 
often  called  me  so),  "  were  you  not  enchanted  ?  do  you  not 
think  the  play  excellent  ?  But  will  you  just  tell  me  its 
name  ? "  " '  Hagar  in  the  desert,'  "  I  answered,  ingenuously. 
"  Oh,  no,  my  boy,  you  must  be  mistaken ;  is  n't  it  the  '  Justi- 
fication of  Abraham '  ? " 

This  delicately  malicious  wit  [_malicieux],  so  gayly  ironical, 
was  united  in  the  Prince  de  Ligne  with  a  sweetness  of 
nature  and  an  equability  of  temper  that  were  quite  un- 
paralleled. Serious  considerations  did  not  affect  him  long. 
Insouciant  rather  than  philosophical,  he  let  his  days,  already 
counted,  roll  by  without  regrets  ;  no  one  would  have  had  the 
courage  to  trouble  the  security,  true  or  false,  of  this  old  and 
charming  child.  Political  ideas  had  little  hold  upon  him. 
He  hated  the  Eevolution  because  it  had  drenched  the  salons 
with  blood,  ravaged  Beloeil,  and  struck  down  all  the  objects 
of  his  tenderness  and  veneration.     But  he  went  no  farther. 


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MEMOIR  OF  THE   miNCE   DE   EIGNE,  253 

One  could  even  see  in  him  a  sort  of  leaning  to  Napoleon 
because  he  was  rebuilding  much  that  had  been  demolished 
by  the  Eevolution ;  though  in  speaking  of  him  to  M.  de 
Talleyrand  he  said  with  a  contempt  that  was  purely  aristo- 
cratic :  "  But  where  did  you  make  the  acquaintance  of  that 
man  ?  I  don't  think  that  he  could  ever  have  supped  witli 
any  of  us." 

The  great,  incurable,  solitary  wound  in  his  heart  was  the 
death  of  his  son  Charles,  killed  on  the  retreat  from  Cham- 
pagne. This  light-hearted  man,  so  experienced  in  life,  so 
accustomed  to  losses,  was  seen,  many  years  after  the  catas- 
trophe, to  weep  at  the  name  of  that  cherished  son.  No  one 
ventured  to  pronounce  that  name  in  his  presence ;  his  voice 
betrayed  his  grief;  his  eyes  would  fill  with  tears.  There 
was  something  singularly  affecting  in  the  sight  of  tliis  old 
man,  Voltairean  and  viveur,  as  we  say  in  these  days,  who 
would  not  be  comforted  because  the  child  of  his  heart  was 
no  more. 

As  a  writer  the  Prince  de  Ligne  had  no  merit  except  that 

of  facility.     [The  reader  of  these  volumes,  which  contain  a 

large  part  of  his  works,  can  judge  if  this  opinion  is  correct ; 

also  whether  the  levity  so  constantly  attributed  to  him  by 

younger  and  succeeding  generations  was  the  leading  quality 

of   his  nature.]     Nearly  all  his  letters  were   piquant ;  but 

printer's  ink  did  not  suit  his  style  of  writing.     The  edition 

of  his  Works  ruined  the  Dresden  publisher,  who  was  forced 

by  contract  to  publish  everything  that  came  from  his  pen. 

He  wrote,  at  hap-hazard  and  on  all  sorts  of  subjects,  between 

thirty  and    forty  volumes.     From   this   unreadable   jumble, 

which  he  himself  admitted  to  be  such,  Mme.  de  Stael  has 

had  the  talent  to  extract  one  very  pleasing  volume,  to  which 

she  has  added  a  preface,  full  of  good  taste  and  wit.     I  could 

myself  swell   this   literary  budget  of   the  Prince  de  Ligne 
Ver.  7  Mem.  17 


254  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

(which  can  never  go  down  to  posterity)  with  a  quantity  of 
detached  articles  on  the  Queen  of  France,  the  Due  de 
Choiseul,  the  Due  d'Orl^ans ;  and  I  possess  a  great  number 
of  his  letters  both  in  prose  and  verse,  but  nothing  of  it  all 
can  add  to  the  literary  credit  of  the  writer. 

He  has  often  told  me  a  number  of  very  amusing  details 
about  his  childhood  and  youth,  with  anecdotes  about  his 
father,  who  was  the  most  haughty  and  fantastic  of  men,  and 
hated  his  son  cordially.  The  latter  was  allied  from  his 
youth  with  the  princes  of  Europe,  including  Voltaire. 
Frederick  II.  sought  him ;  the  Empress  Catherine  admitted 
him  to  her  inmost  circle  and  made  him  travel  with  her. 
With  what  enjoyment  he  used  to  tell  us  of  the  charming 
evenings  at  the  Hermitage  and  at  the  brilliant  Court  of 
Petersburg.  The  Prince  de  Ligne  retained  a  true  attach- 
ment to  the  empress.  He  often  told  me  that  she  was  one  of 
the  most  accomplished  women  he  had  ever  met.  "  She  was," 
he  said,  "prudent,  reserved,  imposing,  when  occasion  de- 
manded ;  an  empress,  measuring  her  gestures  and  her  words, 
while  at  the  same  time  she  was  a  type  of  grace,  naturalness, 
and  true  kindness.  When  she  laid  aside  her  air  of  studied 
gravity,  with  what  indulgence,  what  charming  gayety,  she 
would  lend  herself  to  my  nonsense  ! "  We  have  all  read  the 
prince's  letters  to  the  Marquise  de  Coigny,  relating  his  jour- 
ney to  the  Crimea  with  the  empress,  and  those  to  Sdgur  on 
his  campaign  against  the  Turks  with  Prince  Potemkin. 

The  Prince  de  Ligne  had  spent  a  part  of  his  hfe  m  making 
war,  if  not  with  great  distinction,  at  least  with  the  most  bril- 
liant bravery.  He  played  a  real  part  in  the  Seven  Years* 
War,  was  a  friend  of  Loudon  and  Lacy,  and  became  intimate 
about  that  time  with  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  whom  he  vis- 
ited many  years  later  in  his  philosophical  retreat  at  Eheins- 
berg.     There  the  veteran   prince-hero   loved  to  make   long 


MEMOm  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  255 

disquisitions  on  his  military  life,  —  disquisitions  often  re- 
peated, and  so  wearisome  to  his  listeners  that  the  Prince  de 
Ligne  said  once :  "  When  Prince  Henry  launches  upon  the 
Seven  Years'  War  you  may  know  it  is  going  to  be  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  instead." 

On  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Joseph  II.  the  mihtary  and 
political  career  of  the  Prince  de  Ligne  came  to  an  end.  He 
was  never  employed  again ;  but  he  retained,  with  his  higli 
social  position,  his  titles  and  dignities.  In  the  eyes  of  all 
civilized  Europe  he  appeared  to  do  the  honours  of  Vienna, 
and  he  was,  beyond  a  doubt,  the  centre  of  a  circle  to  which 
we  may  look  in  vain  for  anything  analogous  in  the  present 
day.  The  most  indefatigable  of  fidneurs,  he  was  every- 
where ;  at  the  theatres,  the  dance  halls,  the  Prater,  — 
very  much  in  society,  and  a  little  at  Court.  In  Vienna 
every  one,  grandees  and  people,  saluted  him  with  pleasure  ; 
they  would  see  him  at  a  distance,  coming  either  on  foot, 
wrapped  in  a  semi-mihtary  cloak,  or  in  his  gray  carriage 
with  its  white  horses,  on  which,  beneath  a  prince's  coronet, 
were  blazoned  the  arms  of  his  family,  —  or,  a  bend  gules, 
surrounded  with  their  motto :  Quocunque  res  cadunt,  semper 
linea  recta. 

A  great  number  of  the  witty  sayings  of  the  Prince  de  Ligne 
(many  of  them  never  said  by  him  at  all)  have  been  col- 
lected ;  the  most  piquant  of  them,  known  only  to  his  inti- 
mates, are  now  forgotten.  "  When  I  was  twenty  years  old," 
he  once  wrote  me,  "  I  had  chosen  my  career.  I  hoped  to 
play  a  great  role  in  war ;  but  as  for  Courts,  I  was  contented 
with  that  of  confidant  and  supernumerary.  When  the  play 
is  so  short  and  the  audience  so  ill-composed,  how  can  one  be 
fool  enough  to  wish  for  anythmg  else  ?  " 

At  the  time  when  we  were  all  at  Presburg  for  the  corona- 
tion of  the  Empress  Maria  Louisa  the  Prince  de  Ligne  said 


256  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

to  me  one  day  :  "  Be  ready  at  such  and  such  an  hour,  and  I 
will  take  you  to  see  the  last  great  lady  of  France  and 
Europe."  It  can  well  be  imagined  that  I  was  punctual.  At 
eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  we  got  into  the  carriage,  and 
after  driving  far  through  the  dark  and  crooked  streets  of  the 
town  we  stopped  before  a  house  of  rather  dismal  appearance. 
We  had  some  difficulty  in  getting  up  the  staircase  by  feeling 
our  way.  Finally,  in  a  vast  salon,  very  poorly  furnished  and 
scarcely  lighted  by  two  wax  caudles,  we  found  Mme.  la 
Comtesse  de  Brionne,  Princess  of  Lorraine,  who  united  in 
her  person  the  white  ermine  of  Bretagne,  the  proud  motto 
of  the  Rohans,  and  the  escutcheon  of  the  Balafri^,  over 
which  the  noblest  races  of  Christianity  have  waved  their 
banners.^ 

Afflicted  with  paralysis  of  the  hands  and  feet,  and  half 
lying  on  a  reclining  chair,  Mme.  de  Brionne  preserved,  at 
nearly  eighty  years  of  age,  the  traces  of  her  dazzling  beauty. 
The  sound  of  her  voice,  slowly  accentuated,  her  noble,  regu- 
lar profile,  her  gentle,  but  imposing  glance,  remam  to  this 
day  deeply  engraven  upon  my  memory.  Here  was  a  queen 
dethroned,  a  Hecuba.  After  the  usual  visiting  topics  I 
managed  to  make  the  conversation  turn  on  France  of  the 
olden  time.  Then,  as  if  by  a  fairy  wand  retrograding  us 
fifty  years,  we  were  back  in  the  midst  of  Versailles,  in  the 
midst  of  Trianon.  The  past,  so  old,  so  completely  vanished, 
was  the  present,  —  the  present  in  flesh  and  blood.  'T  was  a 
dialogue  of  the  dead ;  but  the  dead  were  full  of  life  and  were 
each  renewing  the  other's  youth.  Closing  one's  eyes  one 
might  fancy  one's  self  in  the  Q^il  de  Boeuf,  or  the  little 
apartments.     All  the  Versailles  of  that  long   past  time  re- 

^  "  Roi  ne  peux,  prince  ne  veux,  Rohan  je  suis."  (King  I  cannot, 
prince  I  will  not,  Rohan  I  am.)  Le  Ealafre'  was  Henri  de  Lorraine,  Due 
de  Guise. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  257 

turned  to  the  light  of  day,  coquettish,  gallant,  dainty,  joyous, 
and,  oh,  bewildering  thing !  the  two  octogenarians,  intoxi- 
cating themselves  with  this  fictitious  reality,  began  to  talk 
as  if  the  monarchy  were  there,  living  and  moving  before 
their  eyes,  and  Louis  XV.  still  the  king  of  that  enchanting 
fairyland.  He  had  once  been  deeply  in  love  with  Mme. 
de  Brionne,  from  whom  he  never  obtained  anything,  it  was 
said,  but  friendship.  During  the  minority  of  her  son  she 
had  herself  exercised  the  office  of  Grand  Equerry ;  time  was 
—  or  was  it  that  very  morning  ?  —  she  had  left  the  cabinet 
of  the  king,  portfolio  in  hand  —  ah,  yes  !  he  was  so  hand- 
some, so  gracious,  that  king  of  Lawfeldt  and  Fontenoy ! 
They  forgave  him  Mme.  de  Chateauroux,  but  there  was 
small  indulgence  for  Mme.  de  Pompadour.  As  for  Mme.  du 
Barry,  the  prince  scarcely  ventured  to  name  her,  on  account 
of  memories.  We  made  a  journey  (on  this  occasion)  to 
Chanteloup,  and  were  firmly  convinced  that  if  the  Due  de 
Choiseul,  the  intimate  friend  of  the  comtesse,  had  not  been 
driven  away  by  the  cabal  of  the  Due  de  Lavauguyon,  who 
made  the  king  (take  notice,  the  king),  believe  that  M.  de 
Choiseul  had  poisoned  the  dauphin,  he  would  still  have  been 
at  the  head  of  affairs  instead  of  being  exiled  to  Chanteloup, 
and  this  revolution  would  have  come  to  naught.  We  did 
not  spare  the  gentry  of  the  long  robe,  nor  of  the  parliament, 
and,  above  all,  not  the  encyclopedists. 

There  was  much  talk  about  a  certain  jostle  of  a  hoop, 
given,  methinks,  by  the  Duchesse  de  Grammont  to  Mme. 
du  Barry,  which  led  the  prince  to  say,  "  See  what  it  is  to 
have  a  panier  and  no  consideration."  They  blamed  the 
little  Mar^chale  de  Mirepoix  for  consenting,  great  lady  that 
she  was,  to  be  so  accommodating  to  the  king's  mistresses. 
The  Mar^chal  de  Eichelieu,  they  considered,  would  have 
been  perfectly  agreeable  if  he  alone,  of  all  Versailles,  had 


258  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

not  persisted  in  retaining  the  red  heels  and  the  rather  stiff, 
affected  manners  and  formal  compliments  of  the  previous 
reign.  I  was  made  to  observe  that  the  Due  de  Choiseul 
had  a  singular  way — all  his  own  —  of  wearing  his  cordon 
bleu,  and  of  putting  his  hand  in  a  certain  manner  into  his 
half-opened  waistcoat.  All  that  was  highest  in  Versailles, 
all  the  great  ladies,  with  their  beautiful  trained  robes  and 
their  paniers,  their  rouge  and  their  mouches,  all  the  hand- 
some young  men,  powdered,  perfumed,  and  spangled,  came 
and  sat  with  us  there  in  that  poor  salon  that  was  almost 
denuded. 

There  was  something  fascinating  and  bewildering  in  it  all, 
which  was  not  unlike  that  scene  in  "  Eobert  le  Diable " 
where  the  dead  come  out  of  theii*  tombs  and  dance  with  the 
living.  In  point  of  fact,  my  head  did  swim  with  the  wonder- 
ful evocation ;  and  I  only  came  back  to  myself  when,  on 
leaving  the  house  after  spending  two  hours  in  that  magic 
circle,  I  asked  the  prince  to  tell  me  who  was  a  lady,  a  young 
lady,  not  pretty  and  very  silent,  who  had  kept  her  eyes  bent 
on  her  tapestry  and  had  taken  no  part  whatever  in  the 
conversation.  That,  he  said,  was  the  Princesse  Charlotte 
de  Eohan,  niece  of  Mme.  de  Brionne,  who  was  thought 
to  have  been  privately  married  to  the  unfortunate  Due 
d'Enghien  only  a  short  time  before  he  was  murdered  in 
the  moat  at  Vincennes. 

Those  words  fell  like  a  thunderbolt,  before  which  van- 
ished the  enchanting  phantoms  with  whom  I  had  lived  for 
the  last  two  hours  ;  an  unspeakable  emotion  took  possession 
of  my  breast  as  I  thought  how  in  a  remote  little  town  of 
Hungary  three  persons,  struck  by  fate  in  ways  so  different, 
should  have  met  as  if  to  give  me,  a  young  foreigner,  an 
epitome  of  two  centuries  at  the  confluence  of  which  it  was 
my  fate  to  be  born. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PIIINCE   DE  LIGNE.  259 

[The  Due  de  Broglie  is  less  sympathetic,  but  he  sees 
thmgs  from  another  point  of  view.] 

In  1809 1  was  sent  to  Vienna  immediately  after  the  battle 
of  Wagram ;  it  being  customary  during  that  and  the  other 
campaigns  to  send  a  messenger  from  Paris  to  general 
headquarters  weekly,  with  all  current  information  for  the 
emperor  [Napoleon],  then  at  Schonbrunn. 

I  reached  Vienna,  where  I  spent  three  weeks.  As  the 
French  army  still  occupied  the  city,  I  was  lodged  by  the 
mihtary  authorities  in  the  house  of  Prince  Nicolas  Ester- 
hazy,  who  received  me  with  politeness  and  soon  after  ad- 
mitted me  to  his  family.  After  the  departure  of  the  French 
army  he  insisted  on  keeping  me  longer  and  overwhelmed 
me  with  attentions  and  kindness.  The  three  weeks  that 
I  spent  in  his  hospitable  house  were  full  of  charm.  I 
divided  my  time  between  my  excellent  hosts  and  the  house 
of  the  Prince  de  Ligne. 

This  house,  situated  on  the  rampart,  was  literally  a  bird- 
cage. It  consisted  of  a  dining-room  on  the  ground-floor, 
a  salon  on  the  next  floor  and  a  bedroom  above  that;  the 
last  two  being  reached  by  a  sort  of  trap-ladder.  Each  room 
was  furnished  with  a  few  straw  chairs,  a  pine  table,  and 
some  other  little  articles  of  the  same  magnificence.  It  was 
there  that  the  Prince  de  Ligne  received  every  evening,  and 
even,  on  occasion,  in  the  mornings,  a  small  number  of  per- 
sons with  whom  the  pleasures  of  conversation  took  the 
place  of  all  things  else.  He  regularly  gave  supper  to  those 
who  came ;  and  that  supper  consisted  of  a  miserable  chicken, 
spinach,  and  hard-boiled  eggs.  The  evenings,  often  the 
mornings,  were  passed  in  interminable  conversations,  in 
which  the  events  of  the  Court  of  France  under  Louis  XV. 
and  Louis  XVI.  were  related  in  a  tone  conformable  with 


260  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

the  spirit  of  those  frivolous  periods ;  the  prince  comparing 
the  battles  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  with  those  of  the 
Eevolution  and  the  Empire ;  which  provoked  even  a  young 
man  of  my  age  to  take  a  part  and  say  his  word,  either  bad 
or  good. 

The  family  of  the  prince  was  very  pleasing ;  it  consisted 
of  his  three  daughters :  the  Princesse  Clary,  the  Comtesse 
Palffy,  and  the  Princesse  Flore,  afterwards  the  Baronne  von 
Spiegel;  also  his  granddaughter,  Christine,  now  the  Com- 
tesse Maurice  O'Dounell,  the  natural  daughter  of  his  son. 

The  time  that  I  spent  in  this  gentle  and  peaceful  com- 
pany seemed  very  short  and  pleasant.  I  saw  before  my 
departure  a  touching  sight,  —  the  return  of  the  Emperor  of 
Austria  to  his  capital  after  the  very  painful  events  of  the 
preceding  campaign  and  the  melancholy  peace  of  Vienna. 
The  greeting  that  his  people  gave  him  was  tender  and  re- 
spectful ;  it  was  that  of  a  true  family  receiving  its  father 
after  a  long  series  of  misfortunes ;  sparing  him  all  blame, 
which,  indeed,  were  it  even  well-founded  (which  is  doubt- 
ful) his  people  deserved  as  much  as  he. 

In  1812,  being  again  in  Vienna  on  a  mission  [to  convey 
the  news  of  the  Beresina],  my  sole  refuge  was  the  perch  of 
the  Prince  de  Ligne.  There  I  was  received  with  open  arms, 
and  it  was  from  that  amiable  family  that  I  learned  posi- 
tively what  I  had  already  divined,  namely :  that  in  the 
present  state  of  public  opinion  no  one  in  the  highest  society 
would  have  dared  to  receive  a  Frenchman  unless  obhged 
to  do  so  by  duty  to  the  State,  or  by  official  position. 


XI. 

1814. 

THE  CONGRESS  OF  VIENNA.l 

A  STAY  of  several  months  in  Vienna  during  the  memorable 
period  of  which  this  book  will  treat  gave  me  opportunities 
for  observation  from  which  to  gather  material  that  did  not 
come  within  the  reach  of  all  the  spectators  of  that  great 
drama. 

It  was  under  the  guidance  of  the  Mar^chal  Prince  de 
Ligne,  my  relative  and  friend,  that  I  gained  access  to  every- 
tliing  that  was  best  worth  knowing.  His  rank  and  station, 
his  seniority  of  years,  his  military  and  hterary  reputation, 
and  the  personal  esteem  and  friendship  with  which  he 
was  honoured  by  the  sovereigns  assembled  in  Vienna  and 
by  all  the  other  illustrious  persons  there  collected,  gave  him 
universal  acceptance  and  consideration  in  the  highest  circles 
of  the  place.  His  society  was  courted  by  all;  sovereigns, 
princes,  great  captains,  and  men  distinguished  in  art,  litera- 
ture, and  science  crowded  his  little  salon.  The  advantage 
of  being  guided  by  such  a  man  and  of  constantly  listening 
to  his  remarks  upon  men  and  things  are  among  the  con- 
siderations that  have  led  me  to  think  that  the  following 
pages  will  be  of  interest  to   a  reader. 

The  Congress  of  Vienna  bore  the  character  of  a  great 
solemnity  for  the  celebration  of  the  tranquillity  of  Europe. 

1  Taken  from  "  Fetes  et  Souvenirs  du  Congres  de  Vienne,"  par  le  Comte 
de  La  Garde.     Paris  et  Bruxelles :  1840. 


262  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

It  was  a  Festival  of  Peace,  intended  to  restore  the  political 
equilibrium  which  the  struggle  of  armies  had  so  long  in- 
terrupted. The  nations  of  Europe,  convoked  in  the  persons 
of  their  sovereigns,  and  negotiating  together  by  means  of 
their  most  enlightened  ministers,  was  a  unique  spectacle, 
fitly  concluding  the  extraordinary  events  that  had  led  to  it. 

The  Congress  was  already  under  way  on  my  arrival  in 
Vienna  about  the  middle  of  October,  1814  It  was  then 
supposed  that  it  would  speedily  be  dissolved ;  but,  pleasure 
or  business,  I  cannot  say  which,  ruled  otherwise.  Months 
went  by  and  the  sessions  continued.  Sovereigns  met  and 
discussed  their  national  interests  like  brothers  amicably 
setthng,  as  Catherine  the  Great  was  wont  to  say,  the  afifairs 
of  their  "  little  households  ; "  and  the  Abbe  de  Saint-Pierre's 
philosophical  dream  of  a  universal  peace  seemed  about  to 
be  realized.  It  is  Dr.  Johnson,  I  think,  who  says  in  refer- 
ence to  the  great  wall  of  China,  that  the  grandson  of  the 
man  who  has  seen  it  will  have  reason  to  be  proud  of  that 
circumstance.  So  I,  for  my  part,  am  proud  of  having  been 
at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  although  I  bore  no  part  in  it, 
and  had  not  the  honour  of  previously  knowing  all  the  illus- 
trious persons  who  formed  that  most  memorable  assembly. 

When  I  first  went  to  Vienna  in  1807  the  Prince  de  Ligne 
received  me  and  presented  me  at  Court  and  in  society.  The 
revolution  in  the  Low  Countries  had  deprived  him  of  his 
property,  a  loss  he  bore  with  philosophic  fortitude.  The 
Emperor  Francis  II.  made  him  the  commander  of  his  own 
regiment  of  Trabans  (halberdiers)  and  a  field-marshal  in 
1808  ;  and  he  always  presided  at  the  council  of  the  Order 
of  Maria  Theresa.  During  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life 
he  devoted  himself  wholly  to  Hterary  pursuits,  and  published 
his  Works  in  thirty-four  volumes,  some  of  which  have  at- 
tained considerable  celebrity ;  especially  those  in  which  he 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  2 63 

describes  the  events  in  which  he  took  part,  and  the  dis- 
tinguished individuals  whom  he  knew  personally. 

The  day  after  my  arrival  I  went  to  pay  my  respects  to 
the  prmce,  who  readily  agreed  to  be  my  guide  and  instructor 
whenever  circumstances  threw  me  in  his  way.  "  You  have 
come,"  he  said,  "just  at  the  right  moment.  If  you  like 
fetes  and  balls  you  will  have  enough  of  them ;  the  Congress 
ne  marche  pas,  il  danse.  There  is,  literally,  a  royal  mob 
here.  Everybody  is  crying  out :  '  Peace  !  justice  !  balance  of 
power  !  indemnity ! '  As  for  me,  I  am  a  looker-on.  All  the 
indemnity  I  shall  ask  for  is  a  new  hat ;  I  have  worn  mine 
out  in  taking  it  off  to  sovereigns  whom  I  meet  at  the  corner 
of  every  street.  However,  in  spite  of  Eobinson  Crusoe  "  (his 
nickname  for  Napoleon,  who  was  then  at  Elba),  "  a  general 
peace  will  really  be  concluded  by  this  Congress  of  all  the 
nations  of  Europe  who  are  now  exclaiming,  '  Cedant  arma 
togoe:  " 

While  we  were  talking  about  Paris,  my  family,  my 
journey,  my  plans,  a  servant  announced  that  his  carriage 
was  ready.  "  Come  and  dine  with  me  to-morrow,"  he  said, 
"  and  I  will  take  you  in  the  evening  to  the  Ridotto,  where 
reason  wears  the  mask  of  folly."  The  prince  kept  up  the 
good  old  fashion  of  dining  early,  and  I  went  to  his  house 
on  the  rampart  at  four  o'clock.  We  were  soon  summoned 
to  dinner,  at  which  all  his  charming  family  were  assembled. 
Like  the  suppers  of  Mme.  Scarron  ["Madame,  another 
story  !  the  roast  is  lacking  !  "  ],  the  prince's  dinners  certainly 
needed  the  seasoning  of  interesting  conversation.  He  him- 
self did  full  justice  to  the  very  light  fare  that  was  served ; 
but  he  so  possessed  the  art  of  occupying  the  minds  of  his 
guests  that  it  was  not  until  they  rose  from  table  that  the 
ethereal  nature  of  the  meal  was  apparent  to  them. 

On  returning]:   to  the  salon  we  found  that  visitors  were 


264  MEMOIR  OF  THE   TRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

already  arriving.  Nearly  all  were  persons  of  distinction 
from  various  parts  of  Europe,  who  obtained  their  introduc- 
tion to  this  living  monument  of  a  past  age  for  the  purpose 
of  saying,  "  I  have  seen  the  Prince  de  Ligne."  Making  his 
escape  after  a  time  from  one  of  these  dull  groups,  the  prince 
came  up  to  his  grandson  Comte  Clary,  son  of  his  daughter 
Christine,  with  whom  I  was  talking.  "  I  once  wrote  to  Jean- 
Jacques  Eousseau,"  he  said  to  me,  "  a  letter  which  began : 
'  I  know  you  hate  importuners  and  importuning  ; '  there  are 
people  here  to-night  to  whom  I  would  like  to  give  that  hint, 
but  they  are  too  dull  to  take  it.  Let  us  get  away  to  a 
society  that  is  more  to  our  liking :  follow  me."  So  saying, 
he  slipped  out  of  the  room  with  the  agility  of  a  page,  and 
laughed  heartily,  when  we  were  seated  in  the  carriage,  at 
the  trick  he  had  played  on  the  would-be  wits,  and  their 
disappointment  when  they  found  he  was  not  there  to  listen 
to  them. 

At  nine  o'clock  we  reached  the  Burg,  the  Imperial  palace 
where  the  Kidottos  were  held.  The  ballroom,  which  was 
brilHantly  lighted,  is  surrounded  by  a  gallery  leading  to  the 
supper-rooms.  In  it  were  seated  groups  of  elegant  women ; 
some  in  dominoes,  some  in  fancy  costumes ;  bands  of  music, 
stationed  in  different  parts  of  the  hall,  played  waltzes  and 
polonaises  alternately.  In  the  adjoining  rooms  some  of  the 
company  were  performing  solemn  minuets  with  German 
gravity,  which  added  a  comical  element  to  the  scene. 
Vienna,  as  the  prince  observed,  was  now  presenting  an 
epitome  of  Europe,  and  the  Eidotto  was  an  epitome  of 
Vienna.  Impossible  to  imagine  anything  more  remarkable 
than  this  assemblage,  masked  and  unmasked,  amid  which 
the  rulers  of  mankind  were  walking  about  and  mingling  with 
the  crowd  without  the  slightest  distinction. 

"  Take  notice,"  said  the  prince,  "  of  that  graceful,  martial 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  BE  LIGNE.  265 

figure  walking  with  Eugene  de  Beauliarnais ;  that  is  the 
Emperor  Alexander.  And  that  tall,  dignified  man  with  the 
lively  Neapolitan  on  his  arm  is  the  King  of  Prussia ;  the  lady, 
who  is  making  him  laugh,  may  be  an  empress  or  a  grisette. 
And  there,  in  that  Venetian  suit,  the  stiffness  of  which 
scarcely  conceals  his  affability,  is  our  own  emperor,  the 
representative  of  the  most  paternal  despotism  that  ever 
existed.  Here  is  Maximilian,  King  of  Bavaria,  in  whoso 
frank  countenance  you  can  read  the  expression  of  his  good 
heart.  Those  two  young  men  over  there  are  the  Prince- 
Royal  of  Bavaria  and  his  brother  Charles.  The  latter  has 
the  head  of  an  Antinous ;  but  the  other,  Louis,  whose  tastes 
are  all  for  literature  and  the  fine  arts,  promises  to  give 
Bavaria,  one  of  these  days,  a  noble  reign.  Do  you  see  that 
pale  little  man  with  an  aquiline  nose,  near  to  the  King  of 
Bavaria?  That  is  the  King  of  Denmark,  whose  cheerful 
humour  and  lively  repartees  enliven  the  royal  parties  —  they 
call  him  the  Lustig  [merry  joker]  of  the  Sovereign  Brigade. 
Judging  by  his  simple  manners  and  the  perfect  happiness  of 
his  little  kingdom,  you  would  never  suppose  him  to  be  the 
greatest  autocrat  in  Europe.  But  he  is,  for  all  that.  In  Copen- 
hagen the  royal  carriage  is  preceded  by  an  equerry  armed 
with  a  carbine,  and  the  king  as  he  drives  along  can,  if  he 
pleases,  order  any  of  his  subjects  to  be  shot.  That  colossal 
figure  leaning  against  the  column,  whose  bulk  is  not  lessened 
by  the  folds  of  his  ample  domino,  is  the  King  of  Wiirtem- 
burg,  and  next  him  is  his  son,  the  prince-royal,  whose 
affection  for  the  Grand-Duchess  of  Oldenburg  has  brought 
him  to  the  Congress,  rather  than  the  settlement  of  public 
business  that  will  soon  be  his  own.  All  this  crowd  of  per- 
sons who  are  buzzing  round  us  are  either  reigning  princes, 
archdukes,  or  great  dignitaries  from  various  countries.  With 
the  exception  of  a  few  Englishmen  (easily  distinguislied  by 


266  MEMOiE  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LiGNE. 

the  richness  of  their  clothes),  I  do  not  see  any  one  without  a 
title  to  his  name.  And  now  I  think,  having  sufficiently 
introduced  you,  you  can  work  your  own  way.  Come  to 
me  if  you  get  into  any  trouble ;  I  am  always  here  to  pilot 
you." 

In  these  souvenirs  I  note  down  only  my  personal  recollec- 
tions; it  is  no  part  of  my  plan  to  record 'political  events; 
however  important  and  interesting  they  may  be,  history  has 
made  them  too  well  known  to  need  further  detail. 

The  Prince  of  Hesse  Homburg  and  Comte  Woina  brought 
me  news  that  preparations  were  making  for  a  splendid 
tournament  to  take  place  in  the  Imperial  Mews;  which 
would  be,  they  declared,  the  finest  spectacle  ever  witnessed. 
All  the  engravings  and  descriptions  of  the  tournaments  of 
Louis  XIV.  had  been  collected  and  consulted.  The  Comtesse 
Edniond  de  P^rigord  (before  her  mari'iage  Princesse  de  Cour- 
lande),  who  was  one  of  the  twenty-four  ladies  appointed  to 
preside  over  the  fete,  told  me  that  the  dresses  would  surpass 
in  magnificence  all  that  was  recorded  of  the  luxury  of  the 
women  in  the  days  of  the  Great  Monarch.  "  I  really  think," 
she  said,  "  that  we  shall  wear  all  the  pearls  and  diamonds  in 
Bohemia,  Austria,  and  Hungary.  Family  jewels  that  have 
not  seen  the  light  for  a  century  will  be  worn  on  this 
occasion."  "  Next  to  the  ladies  —  alw^ays  the  first  attraction," 
said  Comte  Woina,  "  I  am  sure  that  our  superb  horses  will 
come  in  for  their  share  of  admiration ;  some  of  them  can 
passade  a  minuet  as  gracefully  as  a  Court  cavalier." 

The  next  morning  I  went  to  see  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  be- 
ing anxious  to  avail  myself  of  every  moment  that  he  was 
willing  to  give  me.  It  was  rather  late  when  I  arrived,  and 
I  found  him  just  stepping  into  his  carriage  with  the  Prince  de 
Lambesc  (so  famous  in  the  early  part  of  the  French  Pevolu- 
tion).     They  were  going  to  Schonbrunn,  to  pay  a  visit  to 


MEMOIR  01'  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  267 

Napoleon's  son,  and  asked  me  to  accompany  them.  I  was 
obliged  to  decline  on  account  of  an  engagement,  "  I  shall 
be  going  again  to-morrow,"  said  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  "  and  if 
you  would  like  to  go  then  I  will  announce  you  to-day  to 
Mme.  de  Montesquieu ;  for  I  perform,  ad  honores,  a  sort  of 
grand-chamberlain  duty  to  the  little  duke  who  was  born  a 
king."  "  At  what  o'clock  shall  I  wait  upon  you  ? "  I  asked, 
"  At  eleven,"  he  answered,  and  we  parted,  I  for  a  gallop  on 
the  Prater. 

When  I  called  to  keep  my  appointment  I  was  told  that 
the  prince  had  not  left  his  bed,  but  I  was  ushered  up  into  the 
library,  which  he  had  turned  into  a  sort  of  chamber,  and 
there  I  found  him  sitting  up  in  bed  and  writing,  for  his 
active  mind  never  wasted  a  moment.  "  You  are  very  punc- 
tual," he  remarked.  "  Louis  XVIII.  says  that  punctuality  is 
the  politeness  of  kings,  and  I  have  always  remarked  that  it 
is  a  quahty  which  never  fails  to  please.  Let  me  finish 
what  I  am  writing  and  I  shall  be  at  your  service.  I  always 
jot  down  my  ideas  as  they  occur,  lest  they  escape  me." 

Presently  he  said,  having  occasion  to  refer  to  a  book :  "  Be 
so  kind  as  to  hand  me  that  volume  —  there,  on  the  third  shelf." 
I  did  not  see  the  book  at  once,  and  hesitated.  Thereupon 
the  prince  sprang  up  and,  holding  by  the  top  of  the  book-case, 
reached  the  book  himself  and  then  lay  down  again.  I  was 
amazed  at  this  feat  of  agility  in  a  man  of  eighty.  Observing 
my  look  of  astonishment,  he  said :  "  I  was  always  active,  and 
my  activity  has  sometimes  been  of  great  service  to  me. 
When  I  accompanied  the  Empress  Catherine  to  the  Crimea, 
the  imperial  galley  rounded  the  Parthenion  promontory, 
where  stood,  it  is  said,  the  temple  of  Diana  which  Iphigenia 
made  famous  in  the  olden  time.  We  were  discussing  the 
various  versions  of  that  fact,  when  the  empress,  who  was 
walking  up  and  down  the  deck  with  her  customary  majesty 


26S  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  BE  EIGNE. 

and  slowness,  said  to  me,  pointing  to  the  shore :  '  Prince,  I 
give  to  you  that  disputed  territory.'  I  immediately  jumped 
into  the  water,  uniform  and  all,  and  swam  ashore ;  then  I 
turned  and  called  out :  '  Since  your  Imperial  Majesty  permits 
it,  I  take  possession ; '  and  that  rock  has  been  mine  and  bears 
my  name  ever  since  ;  so  much  for  a  little  agility! " 

Thus  talking,  he  dressed  himself,  and  as  he  put  on  his  bril- 
liant uniform  with  his  half-dozen  Orders  he  remarked :  "  If 
illusion  would  once  more  hold  her  mirror  before  me,  how 
gladly  would  I  exchange  all  this  for  the  plain  uniform  I  first 
put  on  as  ensign  in  my  father's  Wallon  regiment.  I  was 
seventeen  then  and  I  thought  thirty  very  old,  and  now  at 
eighty  I  think  myself  young.  Censorious  people  say  I  make 
myself  too  young  —  well,  I  take  care  to  be  young  enough. 
Few  hves  have  been  happier  than  mine ;  I  have  never  been 
troubled  by  remorse,  ambition,  or  envy ;  and  so  until  I  step 
into  Charon's  boat  I  shall  consider  myself  young  in  spite  of 
those  who  declare  me  old."  This  was  said  while  he  dressed, 
in  that  charming  tone  of  light-heartedness  that  characterized 
the  Prince  de  Ligne,  and  of  which  those  who  never  knew 
him  can  form  no  idea. 

As  we  left  the  house  we  met  a  visitor,  one  of  those  pedan- 
tic persons  by  whom  he  was  beset.  The  prince  got  rid  of 
him  civilly,  and  then  remarked :  "  How  I  hate  those  people 
whose  learning  is  nothing  but  words.  They  are  walking 
dictionaries  and  have  no  merit  but  memory ;  the  world  is  the 
best  book  after  all."  We  drove  to  Schonbrunn  in  a  carriage 
that  seemed  to  be  as  old  as  its  owner,  though  not  half  so  well 
preserved  as  he.  On  the  way  he  talked  of  Mme.  de  Stael. 
"  If,"  he  said,  "  when  she  asked  Bonaparte  whom  he  thought 
the  greatest  woman  of  the  age  he  had  tickled  her  harmless 
vanity  and  said,  *  You,'  instead  of  coarsely  saying,  '  She 
who  bears  the  most  children,'  I  venture  to  say  wo  should  not 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PUINCE  DE  LlGNE.  26§ 

now  be  driving  to  Schonbrunn  to  see  his  son.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  Corinne  and  her  Genevese  coterie  had  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  his  downfall." 

As  we  passed  through  the  courtyards,  which  are  very  spa- 
cious, the  prince  showed  me  the  spot  where  a  young  poUtical 
fanatic  attempted  to  murder  Napoleon  soon  after  the  battle 
of  Wagram.  "  Such  crimes  are  unpardonable,"  he  said,  "  but 
one  cannot  help  admiring  the  cool  courage  with  which  that 
young  fellow  met  his  death." 

We  were  received  on  the  grand  staircase  by  a  French 
lacquey  wearing  the  Napoleon  hvery.  He  knew  the  Prince 
de  Ligne  and  went  immediately  to  announce  him  to  Mme, 
de  Montesquieu,  who  soon  made  her  appearance  and  politely 
apologized  for  not  being  able  to  admit  us  at  once.  The 
young  Napoleon,  she  said,  was  then  sitting  to  Isabey,  and 
she  feared  that  the  sight  of  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  of  whom  the 
child  was  very  fond,  would  distract  his  mind.  "  Will  you 
have  the  goodness  therefore,"  she  added,  "  to  take  a  turn  in 
the  gardens?  and  I  will  end  the  sitting  as  soon  as  I  can." 
"  Willingly,"  replied  the  prince,  "  for  I  want  to  go  over  the 
chateau  and  gardens  with  my  relative  here,  whom  I  have  the 
honour  to  present  to  you,  madame."  "  As  this  gentleman  is 
introduced  by  you,  monsieur,"  said  Mme.  de  Montesquieu,  "  I 
shall  be  happy  to  receive  him  at  any  time.  When  you  have 
seen  all  you  wish,  come  in  without  the  ceremony  of  being 
announced."  "  It  would  have  been  well,"  said  the  prince  as 
we  walked  away,  "  if  I  had  waived  that  ceremony  the  first 
time  I  came  out  here,  for  when  the  child  heard  the  announce- 
ment of  the  Mardchal  Prince  de  Ligne,  he  exclaimed :  '  Is 
he  one  of  the  marshals  who  betrayed  my  papa  ?  If  he  is,  he 
shall  not  come  in ;  *  and  it  was  hard  to  persuade  him  there 
were  other  marshals  than  French  ones." 

We  passed  through  a  long  suite  of  handsome  rooms,  in 

Ver.  7  Mem.   IS 


270  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

which  there  was  nothing  remarkable,  until  we  reached  a 
little  cabinet,  on  the  walls  of  which  were  a  number  of  draw- 
ings by  the  various  archduchesses.  "  It  was  here,"  said  the 
prince,  "  that  Napoleon  when  at  Schoubrunn  used  to  spend 
many  hours  alone  in  reading  and  writing ;  that  portrait  of 
Maria  Louisa  was  the  first  he  saw  of  her,  and  in  all  probabil- 
ity it  was  in  this  room  that  he  formed  the  idea  of  a  marriage 
which  had  such  influence  on  his  destiny."  ...  As  we  were 
returning  to  the  house  after  visiting  the  grounds,  the  gar- 
dener called  our  attention  to  an  enclosed  little  plot.  "  That," 
he  said, "  is  the  Prince  of  Parma's  garden.  He  plants  the 
flowers  himself,  and  comes  every  morning  to  gather  a  bunch 
for  his  mother  and  his  maman-quiou,  as  he  calls  Mme.  de 
Montesquieu." 

The  moment  we  entered  the  prince's  room  he  jumped  from 
the  chair  on  which  he  was  sitting  and  ran  to  embrace  the 
Prince  de  Ligne.  He  was  certainly  a  most  beautiful  child. 
His  brilliant  complexion,  his  bright,  intelligent  eyes,  and  his 
fair  hair  falling  in  curls  over  his  shoulders  made  him  a 
charmiQg  subject  for  such  a  painter  as  Isabey.  He  was 
dressed  in  the  hussar  uniform,  and  wore  the  cross  of  the 
Legion  of  honour.  Bearing  in  mind  Piousseau's  remark  that 
no  one  likes  to  be  questioned,  least  of  all  children,  I  con- 
tented myself  with  stooping  to  kiss  him.  He  then  ran 
hastily  to  a  corner  of  the  room  and  brought  back  a  regiment 
of  wooden  soldiers,  given  to  him  by  the  Archduke  Charles, 
and  these  he  manoeuvred,  while  the  Mardchal  drew  his  sword 
and  commanded  the  evolutions. 

Mme.  de  Montesquieu,  whose  love  for  the  child  fully  justi- 
fied Napoleon's  selection  of  her,  told  us  several  very  clever 
remarks  made  by  the  little  prince  which  tend  to  show  that 
certain  qualities  are  hereditary.  "  A  striking  instance  of  his 
using  his  mind,"  she  said,  "  occurred  yesterday  when  Admiral 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  271 

,  who  accompanied  the  emperor  to  Elba,  came  to  see  him. 

'  Are  you  not  pleased,'  I  said,  preseuting  the  admiral,  '  to 
see  this  gentleman,  who  left  your  papa  only  the  other  day  ? ' 
*  Yes,'  he  said, '  I  am  very  happy  to  see  him,  but,'  laying  his 
finger  on  his  lips, '  I  must  not  say  so.'  '  Your  papa,'  said  the 
admiral,  lifting  him  in  his  arms, '  desired  me  to  give  you  this 
kiss.'  The  child,  who  happened  to  have  a  toy  in  his  hand, 
flung  it  down  and  broke  it ;  then  he  burst  into  tears  and 
cried  out,  *  Poor  papa ! '  What  could  have  been  passing  in 
his  mind  at  that  moment  ? "  said  Mme.  de  Montesquieu. 
"  Perhaps  it  was  the  same  train  of  ideas  that  made  him  resist 
being  taken  from  the  Tuileries.  He  cried  out  that  his  father 
was  betrayed  and  he  would  not  leave  the  chateau.  Catching 
at  the  curtains  and  clinging  to  the  furniture  he  said  it  was 
his  father's  house  and  he  would  not  leave  it." 

We  went  to  look  at  Isabey's  work.  The  likeness  was 
excellent,  and  the  picture  had  all  the  grace  that  characterizes 
the  miniatures  of  that  admirable  artist.  This  was  the  por- 
trait which  Isabey  presented  to  the  emperor  on  his  return 
from  Elba.  "  What  particularly  interests  me  in  it,"  said  the 
Prince  de  Ligne,  "  is  that  it  clCsely  resembles  his  great  uncle 
Joseph  II.  when  a  boy.  I  should  Uke  to  compare  it  with 
a  portrait  of  Joseph  which  was  given  to  me  by  Maria  Theresa. 
That  likeness,  though  a  matter  of  accident,  seems  to  me  of 
good  omen  for  the  future."  Then  he  paid  a  few  well-de- 
served compliments  to  the  artist.  "  I  came  to  Vienna,"  said 
Isabey,  "  in  hopes  of  painting  all  the  celebrated  personages 
collected  here  ;  and  I  ought  to  have  begun  with  you."  "  On 
account  of  my  seniority  ? "  asked  the  prince.  "  No,"  said 
Isabey,  "  as  a  model  of  all  that  is  illustrious  in  the  present 
day." 

The  Empress  Maria  Theresa  was  now  announced  and  we 
paid  our  homage  and  withdrew,  leaving  Isabey  free  to  show 


272  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

her  the  portrait  which  she  had  come  to  see.  "  Ah ! "  said 
the  prince  as  we  were  driving  away,  "  when  Napoleon  re- 
ceived at  Schonbrunn  the  submission  of  the  city  of  Vienna 
after  the  battle  of  Wagram,  and  reviewed  his  victorious 
troops  in  these  very  courtyards,  how  little  he  dreamed  that 
the  son  of  the  conqueror  and  the  daughter  of  the  conquered 
would  be  held  as  hostages  by  the  nation  whose  destinies 
were  then  at  his  disposal.  How  extraordinary  the  fate  of 
that  man !  Not  content  to  be  king,  his  ambition  was  like 
that  of  Alexander  and  he  sought  to  be  Jupiter.  I  have  seen 
many  instances  of  good  fortune  and  adversity  in  my  long 
life,  but  none  to  compare  with  this  on  which  the  world's  at- 
tention is  now  fixed.  If  the  reflections  we  make  on  all  we 
see  and  feel  were  always  present  to  our  minds,  how  wise  we 
should  be ! " 

I  could  not  help  asking  him  how  it  was  that  throughout 
so  many  important  campaigns  his  military  experience  and 
talents  had  not  been  put  into  active  service.  "  Ah ! "  he 
said,  with  a  laugh,  "  I  died  with  Joseph  II."  "  Say  like  him, 
rather  than  with  him,  prince,  for  Europe  declares  him  im- 
mortal" "  His  is  the  immortality  of  genius,  and  mine,  if  I 
have  any,  will  be  that  of  the  sybil  —  lasting  age."  As  we 
were  crossing  the  glacis  between  the  suburbs  and  the  city, 
we  met  an  open  carriage,  in  which  sat  a  gentleman  of  por- 
tentous proportions.  "  Halt !  "  cried  the  prince.  "  Let  us 
make  our  bow ;  here  is  another  king  by  the  grace  of  God 
and  Eobinson  Crusoe."     It  was  his  Majesty  of  Wurtemberg. 

At  a  party  given  by  the  Princesse  Bagration  the  fashion 
of  drawing  a  lottery,  one  of  the  favourite  amusements  of  the 
Court  of  Louis  XIV.,  was  revived.  All  the  sovereigns  sent 
presents  to  the  princess,  which  made  the  prizes ;  and  the 
fortunate  men  who  won  them  presented  them  in  homage  to 
some  lady  in  the  company.     The  Grand-Duke  Constantine 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  273 

won  two  vases,  which  the  King  of  Prussia  had  ordered  from 
Potsdam,  and  these  he  presented  to  our  hostess.  The  Em- 
peror Alexander's  prize  was  a  mosaic  box  which  he  entreated 
the  Princesse  Marie  Esterhazy  to  accept.  The  salon  was  so 
crowded  that  I  did  not  see  my  friend  Prince  Alexander 
Ypsilanti  until  he  went  up  to  receive  his  prize,  a  sable  tippet, 
which  he  presented  to  Princesse  H^lfene  Suvaroff,  daughter 
of  the  grand  chamberlain  of  Eussia,  Narischkin.  Wlien  I 
had  last  seen  Ypsilanti  he  was  only  a  cornet  in  the  guards. 
He  was  now  a  major-general,  brilhantly  decorated,  but  lack- 
ing an  arm,  which  he  lost  at  Bautzen.  Princesse  H^lfene 
was  just  as  I  left  her  in  Petersburg,  always  "  fair  and  good," 
as  they  name  her  there.  We  were  all  three  dehghted  to 
meet  again.  "  We  have  so  much  to  say  to  one  another,"  said 
Princesse  H^lfene,  "  come  and  breakfast  with  me  to-morrow  at 
twelve,  both  of  you,  and  then  we  can  talk  at  our  ease." 

The  breakfast  was  delightful.  We  talked  over  all  the 
news  of  Petersburg  and  the  friends  we  had  left  there,  the 
hon-mots  of  Prince  Galitzin,  the  sternness  of  the  Grand-Duke 
Constantino,  and  the  droll  sayings  of  her  father  the  grand- 
chamberlain  Narischkin.  Wlien  it  became  Ypsilanti's  turn 
to  speak  it  was  quite  evident  that,  in  spite  of  his  brilliant 
position,  all  his  hopes  of  future  glory  turned  to  Greece,  whose 
subjugation  he  mourned  and  longed  to  avenge.  I  saw  plainly 
that  Princesse  Hdlfene  was  encouraging  these  dreams.  Like 
all  the  rest  of  the  Eussian  nobility,  she  cherished  a  hope 
transmitted  to  them  from  generation  to  generation  as  a 
sacred  inheritance.  "  The  time  is  coming,"  said  Ypsilanti. 
"  I  have  letters  from  all  directions  calling  for  me ;  from  the 
islands  of  the  Archipelago,  from  the  two  principahties,  and 
from  higher  places  still.  Mine  shall  be  the  blood  to  fill  the 
cup."  "  Why  delay  ? "  cried  the  princess.  "  Could  you  wish 
for  a  higher  glory  than  to  be  at  twenty-three  the  regenerator 


274  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

of  an  oppressed  people  ?  This  is  the  era  of  youth  outstrip- 
ping middle  age.  Think  how  Alexander  wept  at  the  tomb  of 
Achilles  and  mourned  that  he  had  never  achieved  anything 
as  great.  What  is  there  comparable  to  the  independence  of 
Greece  ? "  [Alexander  Ypsilanti  fulfilled  his  desire.  He 
initiated  the  revolution  of  Greece  in  1821,  which,  though  it 
failed  under  him,  was  carried  on  by  his  brother  Demetrius. 
He  himself,  after  a  cruel  imprisonment,  died  in  Vienna, 
shattered  by  his  sufferings.] 

I  was  beginning  to  share  their  enthusiasm ;  as  for  Ypsi- 
lanti, his  face  was  a  presage  of  emancipation ;  Greece  was  on 
the  point  of  being  liberated,  when,  to  our  surprise,  General 
Comte  Ouvaroff  entered  suddenly  without  being  announced. 
"We  then  turned  to  subjects  of  a  less  heroic  kind,  for,  though 
gifted  with  many  excellent  qualities,  the  worthy  general  was 
by  no  means  famous  for  conversational  powers  or  depth  of 
information.  Presently,  however,  the  servants  announced 
the  princess's  carriage,  and  she  invited  us  aU  to  drive  with 
her  on  the  Prater. 

A  few  days  later  I  met  at  the  Prince  de  Ligne's  M. 
Novossilsoff,  a  well-known  Eussian  statesman,  held  in  great 
esteem  by  the  Emperor  Alexander.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  provisional  government  of  Poland,  and  was  talking  with 
the  prince  when  I  arrived  over  the  affairs  of  that  country. 
The  subject  is  one  of  deep  interest  to  me,  for  the  happiest 
days  of  my  life  are  those  I  have  spent  in  Poland,  and  the 
feehngs  I  have  for  that  unfortunate  country  are  deep  indeed. 
The  conversation  turned  chiefly  on  the  constitution  which 
it  was  now  proposed  to  give  the  Poles  ;  M.  Novossilsoff  was 
one  of  the  commission  appointed  to  draw  it  up.  "  The 
Polish  nation,"  he  said,  "  are  forever  letting  their  minds  turn 
back  to  the  brilliant  past  of  their  history  ;  they  want  their 
country  to  have  once  more  the  proud  independence  it  en- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  275 

joyed  under  the  Batoris,  the  Sobieskis,  the  Sigismonds,  never 
reflecting  on  the  vast  changes  in  the  political  situation 
which  Europe  has  seen  since  then,  and  which,  with  their 
geographical  position,  make  it  impossible  that  they  should 
be  again  what  they  once  were.  Poland  is  now  linked  to  us, 
and  must  content  herself  with  the  inevitable  fate  that  awaits 
her  politically.  If  we  allowed  her  to  be  completely  indepen- 
dent she  would  make  an  Asiatic  nation  of  us."  "  Burke  said," 
observed  the  prince, "  that  the  partition  of  Poland  would  be 
paid  for  dearly  by  those  who  made  it ;  and  he  might  have 
added  those  who  defend  her,  for  Napoleon's  interference  in 
her  concerns  has  helped  in  no  slight  degree  to  lose  him  his 
throne.  I  hope  your  Emperor  Alexander  will  have  a  better 
fate ;  but  all  depends  on  the  adoption  of  proper  measures 
secured  on  a  firm  foundation.  A  people  as  proud  as  the 
Poles  may  bear  being  conquered,  but  they  will  never  endure 
being  humiliated.  You  may  conquer  them,  but  you  can 
never  subjugate  them,  except  by  a  just  and  generous  policy." 
"  My  dear  prince,"  repHed  Novossilsoff,  "  you  need  not  fear 
that  the  Poles  wiU  have  reason  to  complain  of  any  system 
of  policy  from  us.  Read  this  memorandum ;  it  contains 
the  constitution  we  propose  for  them;  the  notes  on  the 
margin  are  all  the  emperor's,  written  by  his  own  hand ;  you 
will  see  how  strong  our  desire  is  to  meet  the  wishes  of  the 
Polish  nation.  The  institutions,  if  secured  on  this  solid 
basis,  will  in  turn  secure  the  peace  of  Europe."  "  Well,"  said 
the  prince, "  if  the  foundations  of  the  edifice  are  proportioned 
to  its  weight  and  sufficiently  solid  they  will,  no  doubt,  be 
durable  ;  but  if  not,  you  may  fear  the  vengeance  of  men  who 
are  driven  to  desperation." 

At  this  moment  Comte  Arthur  Potocki,  a  young  friend 
of  the  prince,  came  in.  Being  a  Pole  and  an  ardent  enthu- 
siast for  his  country,  his   presence   put  a  stop   to   further 


276  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

remarks  from  M.  Novossilsoff,  who  folded  up  his  papers 
and  presently  went  away.  The  prince  invited  the  count  to 
come  and  dine  with  us  at  his  "  Eefuge,"  as  he  terms  his 
country-house  on  the  Kalemberg  —  otherwise  called  the 
Leopoldberg  —  just  outside  Vienna.  The  prince  was  greatly 
attached  to  Comte  Arthur,  whom  he  called  his  Alcibiades. 
The  latter  declined  the  invitation  because  he  was  engaged 
with  Princesse  Lubomirski  to  take  part  in  some  tableaux 
vivants  to  be  given  that  night  at  Court  under  the  direction 
of  the  painter  Isabey.  We  were  also  invited  as  spectators, 
but  as  the  performance  did  not  begin  till  eight  o'clock  the 
prince  considered  that  we  had  time  to  dine  at  the  Eefuge 
and  return. 

The  Kalemberg  is  a  lofty  hill  in  the  vicinity  of  Vienna 
from  which  a  broadly  extensive  view  is  obtained.  The  house 
[an  old  monastery]  is  small,  but  neat  and  pleasing  in  appear- 
ance. Over  the  portal  of  the  entrance  the  prince  had  caused 
to  be  carved  these  words:  Quo  res  cadunt,  semper  linea 
recta.  "  Here,"  said  the  prmce,  "  I  find  rest  and  relaxation  ; 
especially  at  present,  for,  no  matter  what  our  own  inclinations 
may  be,  there  is  a  certain  stiffness  which  we  are  compelled 
to  impose  upon  ourselves  in  presence  of  so  many  crowned 
heads  and  important  personages.  Here  I  can  live  my  own 
life." 

When  we  reached  the  extremity  of  the  garden  he  opened 
a  door  which  led  into  a  summer-house  overhanging  the 
Danube,  from  which  was  a  view  of  the  whole  city  of  Vienna. 
"  It  was  from  this  spot,"  he  said,  "  that  John  Sobieski  began 
his  glorious  attack  upon  the  Grand  vizier." 

At  three  o'clock  we  sat  down  to  a  dinner  on  provisions 
which  the  prince  had  ordered  to  be  sent  out  with  us  in  the 
carriage.  Never  will  my  grateful  memory  forget  the  charms 
of  that  repast !     How  bright  the  colours  were  in  which  he 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  277 

pictured  the  noted  persons  who,  in  the  course  of  his  long 
career,  had  honoured  him  with  their  friendship.  He  had  a 
way  of  treating  every  subject  of  which  he  spoke  with  a 
grace  and  charm  imparted  to  the  merest  trifles.  I  hstened 
with  the  deepest  attention  to  all  he  said,  and  I  felt  myself 
transported  to  the  scenes  to  which  his  imagination  gave  such 
vivid  colouring 

When  we  reached  the  palace  that  evening  we  found  that 
Comte  Arthur  Potocki  had  secured  seats  for  us  next  to  the 
Prmcesse  Esterhazy  and  Prmce  Leopold  of  Saxe  Coburg, 
The  performance  began  by  extinguishing  the  lights  while 
an  orchestra,  of  harps  and  French  horns  only,  played  an 
oiiverture.  The  tableaux  were  three  in  number :  A  Spanish 
conversation ;  Louis  XIV.  at  the  feet  of  Mme.  de  la  Val- 
liere;  and  a  picture  by  Le  Gros  representing  Hippolytus 
defending  himself  to  Theseus  against  the  accusations  of 
Phaedra.  These  pictures,  represented  by  the  most  distin- 
guished men  and  women  at  Court  with  magnificent  and 
appropriate  costumes  and  arranged  in  the  most  masterly 
manner  as  to  hght  and  shade  by  Isabey,  naturally  caused 
great  admiration.  It  is  impossible  to  convey  an  idea  of 
the  magic  effect  to  those  who  did  not  witness  the  exhibition. 
[Tableaux  vivants  were  then  a  novelty ;  these  were  among 
the  first  ever  shown.] 

The  Hghts  were  now  replaced,  and  while  the  next  series, 
called  "  dramatic  romances,"  were  being  prepared,  all  kinds 
of  refreshments  were  served  to  the  company.  There  were, 
as  before  with  the  tableaux,  three  romances.  The  first  was 
the  well-known  idyll:  Partant  pour  la  Syrie,  le  jeune  et 
beau  DiLiiois,  composed  by  Queen  Hortense  and  sung  by 
Mile.  Goubault,  daughter  of  the  Dutch  minister,  Baron 
Goubault,  now  Governor  of  Brussels.  Her  voice  was  very 
pathetic,  and  she  sang  the  air  with  exquisite  feeling,  while 


278  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

Comte  Schiiufeld  and  the  Princesse  Philipstadt  expressed 
the  scene  with  pantomimic  action.  They  were  supported 
by  a  full  chorus  of  both  sexes ;  and  the  beautiful  grouping, 
especially  during  the  marriage  stanza,  together  with  the 
admirable  training  of  the  chorus,  produced  a  perfect  en- 
thusiasm among  the  audience. 

I  was  too  far  from  the  Emperor  Alexander  to  hear  what 
he  said  to  Prince  Eugfene,  who  sat  between  him  and  the  king 
of  Bavaria,  but  from  the  expression  of  the  prince's  face,  it 
was  evident  that  the  emperor  was  paying  a  just  tribute  to 
his  sister's  talents. 

The  next  "  romance  "  was  Compigni's,  Le  Troubadour  qui 
chante  et  fait  la  guerre.  This  was  performed  by  Comte 
Schomberg  and  the  Comtesse  MaressL  The  third  was 
another  composition  by  Queen  Hortense :  Fais  ce  que  doit, 
advienne  que  pourra.  This  was  as  well  sung  and  expressed 
as  the  two  others  by  young  Prince  Kadziwill  and  the  Com- 
tesse Zamoiska,  the  beautiful  and  accomplished  daughter  of 
the  Mar^chal  Prince  CzartormiskL  The  author's  name  was 
called  for,  and  its  announcement  received  with  unanimous 
applause. 

"  The  truth  is,"  remarked  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  "  that  Mile, 
de  Beauharnais  wields  a  sceptre  that  will  never  break  in  her 
hand.  She  remains  a  queen  by  the  grace  of  her  talents,  after 
ceasing  to  be  one  by  the  grace  of  God.  As  for  me,  I  not 
only  applaud  these  marks  of  genius,  but  I  delight  in  paying 
homage  to  fallen  greatness,  when  persons  in  that  situation 
have  proved  themselves  worthy  of  the  station  they  attained." 
"  I  saw  so  much  of  Queen  Hortense,"  said  Prince  Leopold, 
"  during  my  frequent  visits  to  Paris,  that  I  can  bear  ample 
testimony  to  the  truth  of  what  you  say.  She  was  very 
young  when  brought  into  a  Court  resplendent  with  military 
glory,  but  her  amiable  nature  was  not  in  the  slightest  degree 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  279 

affected  by  this  brilliant  change  in  her  fortunes.  Neither 
imperial  splendour  nor  her  own  regal  honours  made  the  least 
alteration  in  her ;  throughout  she  kept  her  modest,  unaffected 
ways.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  loss  of  those  honours  have 
caused  her  any  regret.  She  was  born  with  a  gift  for  the  fine 
arts,  which  her  superior  education,  and  the  means  at  her 
command,  have  fully  developed.  You  are  right  in  saying 
she  wields  a  sceptre  of  which  she  can  never  be  deprived. 
She  sings  exquisitely,  plays  delightfully  on  several  instru- 
ments, composes,  as  we  have  just  heard,  charmingly,  and 
draws  most  beautifully.  No  woman  ever  danced  better. 
But  what  all  strangers  in  Paris  felt  most  in  the  days  of  her 
greatness  was  the  courteous  consideration  which  she  and  her 
mother  showed  to  them.  They  both  seemed  constantly 
anxious  to  smooth  the  peculiar  difficulties  of  position  which 
some  of  us  could  not  avoid  feeling  at  the  Tuileries." 

"  I  like,"  said  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  "  the  frank  homage  that 
you  pay,  dear  prince,  where  it  is  so  justly  due.  I  love  to  ad- 
mire wherever  admiration  is  possible  ;  I  have  no  patience 
with  those  who  are  always  seeking  a  motive  for  acts  of  kind- 
ness outside  of  kindness,  as  if  they  did  not  believe  that 
amiable  qualities  can  come  of  native  impulse." 

The  habit  of  meeting  one  another  every  day  in  Vienna 
produced  a  most  friendly  and  intimate  feeling  among  persons 
of  many  diverse  countries.  Vienna  is  a  small  city,  and  its 
places  of  public  resort  so  many  that  people  were  no  sooner 
parted  than  they  met  again.  The  Prater  is,  however,  the 
grand  meeting-place,  —  not  for  persons  of  social  distinction 
only,  but  for  all  classes.  Besides  the  Court  carriages,  of 
which  three  hundred  were  provided  by  the  emperor  for  the 
sovereigns  and  their  suites,  there  were  throngs  of  equipages 
belonging  to  foreigners  of  all  nations,  who  flocked  to  Vienna 
for  this  great   occasion.      The   English   ambassador,   Lord 


280  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

Stuart,  drove  four  superb  horses ;  the  Emperor  Alexander 
and  his  sister,  the  Grand-Duchess  of  Oldenburg,  took  their 
airing  in  a  simple  curricle ;  in  a  large  landau,  emblazoned 
with  his  arms,  sat  the  English  admiral,  Sir  Sidney  Smith ; 
after  him  came  the  Pacha  of  Widdin  in  a  tangle  of  hackney 
coaches,  mixed  with  the  carriages  of  the  archdukes,  who,  in 
all  their  amusements,  behaved  as  private  individuals,  and 
assumed  their  rank  only  for  ceremonial  functions. 

The  scene  was  also  enlivened  with  the  beauty  of  various 
very  interesting  costumes.  Oriental,  Polish,  and  Hungarian, 
and  above  all  by  the  becoming  cap  of  the  wives  and  daugh- 
ters of  the  Viennese  burghers,  which  displays  their  fair  hair 
and  pretty  features  to  the  best  advantage.  But  most  charm- 
ing of  all  were  the  beautiful  women  of  the  Court,  in  their 
elegant  equipages,  drawn  by  splendid  Hungarian  horses  :  the 
Comtesse  Euchs,  the  Princesse  de  Courlande,  the  beautiful 
Duchesse  de  Sagan,  passionately  devoted  to  all  that  is  he- 
roic and  grand,  the  Comtesse  Kinski,  the  sincerity  of  whose 
face  gives  it  a  charm  it  has  long  since  ceased  to  derive  from 
tlie  bloom  of  youth. 

It  was  interesting  to  observe  the  friendship  shown  by  the 
Emperor  Alexander  to  Prince  Eugene  Beauharnais,  of  which 
he  had  lately  given  him  so  many  proofs  at  the  time  of  his 
mother's  death.  It  was  rare  to  see  the  emperor  without  the 
prince.  Every  day  he  went  regularly  at  twelve  o'clock  to 
the  prince's  lodgings  in  the  Wieden  Kaisergarten,  and 
together,  after  walking  twice  around  the  ramparts,  they 
generally  went  to  see  some  of  the  many  sights  Vienna 
afforded  at  that  time,  ending  their  day  on  the  Prater.  The 
amiable  qualities  of  Prince  Eugene-  might  make  it  unneces- 
sary to  look  for  any  other  reason  for  this  friendship.  The 
noble  nature  he  had  always  evinced  was  a  sure  guarantee  of 
his  future  conduct.     But  to  a  lofty  mind  like  that  of  Alex- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  281 

ander  the  misfortunes  that  had  come  upon  his  friend  were 
the  real  magnet  that  drew  them  together.  Alexander's 
noble  and  handsome  face  would  have  been  almost  awe- 
inspiring,  had  it  not  been  for  an  expression  of  sweetness  that 
tempered  its  dignity ;  the  good-humoured  attention  with 
which  he  hstened  to  all  that  was  said  to  him  captivated 
every  one.  Those  who  had  the  honour  of  his  intimacy 
adored  him,  and  the  simplicity  of  his  manners,  combined 
with  his  easy  politeness  and  gallantry,  won  all  hearts  in 
Vienna. 

To  avoid  the  awkward  questions  of  precedence  liable  to 
arise  among  so  many  sovereigns  unless  positively  settled  in 
advance,  the  Emperor  Alexander  proposed  that  age  should 
determine  the  matter.  This  was  heartily  agreed  to,  and  the 
monarchs  took  their  rank  as  follows  :  King  of  Wiirtemburg, 
born  1754  ;  King  of  Bavaria,  1756  ;  King  of  Denmark,  1768  ; 
Sovereign  of  Austria,  1768;  King  of  Prussia,  1770;  Emperor 
Alexander,  1777. 

For  some  time  after  my  arrival  in  Vienna  I  had  been 
so  much  engaged  that  except  for  a  few  formal  and  necessary 
visits  I  had  scarcely  been  to  the  French  Legation,  though 
some  of  its  members  were  my  intimate  friends.  France  was 
represented  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna  by  the  Prince  de 
Talleyrand,  the  Due  d'Arlberg,  and  Comte  Alexis  de 
Noailles.  I  was  invited  to  dinner  by  M.  de  Talleyrand,  and 
looked  forward  with  some  impatience  for  the  event,  as  I 
had  not  seen  that  now  famous  man  since  my  boyhood.  The 
Comtesse  de  Pdrigord  did  the  honours  of  her  uncle's  house 
The  prince  received  me  with  that  gracious  affability  whiclj 
in  him  is  second  nature.  "  So,  monsieur,"  he  said,  "  you 
could  not  pay  me  a  visit  till  I  came  to  Vienna ! "  Besides 
the  members  of  the  embassy  the  only  persons  present  at 
the  dinner  were  Prince  Eazumoski,  the  Duo  de  Eichelieu, 


282  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

and  General  Pozzo  di  Borgo.  The  latter,  whom  I  now  met 
for  the  first  time,  seemed  to  me  to  combine  with  a  consid- 
erable fund  of  information  the  shrewd  judgment  that  char- 
acterizes his  countrymen  [Corsican].  From  the  beginning 
of  his  career  he  had  been  the  declared  enemy  of  Bonaparte, 
and  he  did  not  now  conceal  the  satisfaction  that  he  felt  at 
his  downfall.  He  pointed  out,  and  very  clearly,  the  causes 
and  circumstances  that  had  led  to  it  The  conversation 
turned,  after  a  time,  on  the  affairs  of  Saxony.  M.  de 
Talleyrand  maintained  the  rights  of  that  country  with 
dignity  and  sound  arguments.  "  It  has  been  her  fate,"  he 
said,  "  to  be  dragged  into  quarrels  that  did  not  concern  her  ; 
the  results  of  which  have  proved  fatal  to  her.  Augustus  the 
Strong  by  allying  himself  with  the  czar  drew  Charles  XII. 
into  Poland,  and  Augustus  III.  by  taking  part  in  those  wars 
of  Frederick  II.  lost  all  and  retired  to  Warsaw.  Saxony 
may  be  more  fatally  involved  now  than  she  ever  has  been 
before  ;  yet  it  is  constantly  being  said  here  that  the  king 
is  saved  in  spite  of  his  cession  of  Lusatia  and  other  places. 
The  king  may  be  saved,  but  the  kingdom  is  not.  What 
will  Saxony  be  when  Prussia  gets  to  the  suburbs  of 
Dresden  ? " 

Although  there  is  an  air  of  coldness  and  reserve  in  the 
person  and  manner  of  M.  de  Talleyrand,  every  one  pays 
court  to  him,  his  apparent  coldness  seeming  to  increase 
the  value  of  his  notice ;  people  are  proud  to  obtain  a 
smile,  or  a  word  of  approbation.  He  possesses  that  flexi- 
bility of  talent  which  without  effort  or  assumption  enables 
him  to  shine  on  great  occasions,  and  yet  in  social  inter- 
course to  give  ineffable  grace  to  trivial  conversation.  Jus- 
tice has  never  been  done  to  M.  de  Talleyrand's  kindness  of 
heart ;  perhaps  because  he  never  does  a  service  for  the  sake 
of  ostentation,  and  he  is  always  the  first  to  forget  his  bene- 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  283 

fits.  I  happened  to  speak  of  him  one  day  to  Acliille  de 
Rouen,  who  was  on  terms  of  the  closest  intimacy  with  him, 
He  said  to  me :  "  History  will  be  as  lavish  of  praise  on  M. 
de  Talleyrand  as  some  of  his  contemporaries  have  been  of 
blame.  When  a  statesman  has  made  and  kept  so  many 
stanch  friends  and  so  few  enemies,  through  a  long  and 
most  difficult  career,  history  must  pronounce  him  to  have 
been  wise  and  moderate,  his  character  honourable,  his 
talent  lofty.  It  is  impossible  to  know  him  and  not  love 
him.  All  who  have  the  happiness  of  his  real  acquaintance 
judge  him  as  I  do.  He  is  an  indefinable  mixture  of  dignity 
and  simpHcity,  of  soimd  sense  and  graceful  trifling,  of 
sternness  and  urbanity.  In  being  with  him  one  learns 
unconsciously  the  history  of  ancient  and  modern  times 
and  the  most  interesting  Court  anecdotes;  his  conversa- 
tion is  a  perfect  portrait  gallery." 

Good  taste  is  not  so  superficial  a  quality  as  it  is  generally 
considered.  The  concurrence  of  many  essential  things  is 
required  to  form  it,  such  as  delicacy  both  of  mind  and 
feeling,  acquaintance  with  the  habits  of  good  society,  and 
a  certain  tact  in  harmonizing  the  whole  ;  but  at  the  same 
time  the  sentiment  must  be  superior  to  the  condition  of  its 
possessor,  for  no  one  is  at  ease  in  elegant  prosperity  unless 
he  has  a  mind  that  can  rise  above  its  influence.  This  defi- 
nition of  a  valuable  quality  can  be  applied  to  fetes  and 
entertainments  as  well  as  to  persons ;  and  it  may  therefore 
be  allowed  to  precede  the  account  of  a  spectacle,  unique  of 
its  kind,  the  splendour  of  which  was  greatly  enhanced  by 
an  exquisite  display  of  good  taste. 

Many  weeks  had  been  spent  on  the  preparations  for  the 
tournament,  to  which  I  was  engaged  to  go  with  the  Prince 
de  Ligne.  It  was  held  in  the  Imperial  riding-school,  the 
great  hall  of  which,  in  the  shape  of  a  long  parallelogram, 


284  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

was  surrounded  by  a  gallery  supported  by  twenty-four 
Corinthian  columns,  from  which  hung  the  shields  of  the 
knights,  emblazoned  with  their  arms  and  devices.  In  this 
gallery  benches  rose  gradually  one  above  another,  com- 
manding a  full  view  of  the  arena  and  able  to  accommodate 
about  a  thousand  spectators.  Several  oflBicers  under  the 
direction  of  the  grand- master  of  ceremonies  waited  at  the 
doors  and  took  the  invited  guests  to  their  appointed  places. 
Ours  were  between  the  Bavarian  minister  and  the  Spanish 
envoy ;  next  to  us  sat  Prince  Nicholas  Esterhazy  in  the 
uniform  of  the  Hungarian  hussars  richly  embroidered  with 
pearls,  which  in  itself  was  a  sight  to  behold,  inasmuch  as 
it  was  valued  at  four  miUion  florins. 

At  each  extremity  of  the  hall  were  two  ranges  of  decorated 
seats ;  one  for  the  monarchs,  empresses,  queens,  archdukes, 
and  sovereign  princes ;  the  other  for  the  four-and-twenty 
ladies  whose  knights  were  to  prove  in  the  tourney  that  they 
were  the  fairest  of  the  fair.  In  the  gallery  above  these  seats 
were  the  orchestras,  and  I  need  scarcely  say  that  aU  the  dis- 
tinguished musical  performers  then  in  Vienna,  and  there 
were  many,  lent  their  aid.  The  whole  front  of  the  gallery 
was  occupied  by  ladies  distinguished  for  rank  and  beauty. 
Behind  them  were  two  rows  of  princes,  ambassadors,  and 
noted  foreigners,  the  court  dresses  and  uniforms  presenting 
a  solid  mass  of  gold  and  diamonds  and  precious  stones,  while 
the  turban  of  the  Pacha  of  Widdin,  the  caftan  of  the  Mauro- 
djian,  and  the  czako  of  Prince  Mauni-Beg  Mirza  gave  variety 
to  the  scene.  I  was  continually  asking  the  Prince  de  Ligne 
the  names  of  those  I  did  not  know,  until  finally  I  could  not 
help  exclaiming :  "  Prince,  the  whole  world  is  here  ! " 

The  two  emperors  sat  with  the  empresses  beside  them, 
and  all  the  other  monarchs  and  reigning  princes  took  their 
places  in  the  order  of  rank.     They  were  all  in  full  costume 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  285 

and  presented  perhaps  the  greatest  spectacle  that  Europe 
could  offer.  It  was  hoped  that  the  Empress  Maria  Louisa 
and  her  son,  young  Napoleon,  would  have  been  present ;  but 
Maria  Louisa  felt  the  delicacy  of  her  position,  and  rightly 
believed  that  the  only  way  to  preserve  her  dignity  under 
misfortune  was  to  live  in  retirement.  But  the  Prince  de 
Ligne  informed  me  that  she  had  been  to  several  of  the  re- 
hearsals, accompanied  by  her  father  and  younger  sisters. 

Punctually  at  eight  o'clock  a  flourish  of  trumpets  an- 
nounced the  entrance  of  the  twenty-four  ladies,  who  were 
conducted  to  their  seats  by  their  champions.  One  might  have 
imagined  on  seeing  them  that  all  the  wealth  of  Austria  had 
been  lavished  on  their  adornment.  Their  velvet  gowns  were 
made  after  the  fashion  of  Louis  XIV.'s  reign,  modified  by  the 
taste  of  the  wearers  but  literally  covered  with  pearls  and 
diamonds  and  other  precious  stones.  The  dresses  of  the 
Princesses  Paul  Esterhazy  and  Marie  Metternich  and  the 
Comtesses  de  P^rigord,  Ezewuska,  Maressi,  and  Sophie  Zichy 
were  valued  at  more  than  twenty  millions.  The  ladies  were 
divided  into  four  parties  distinguished  by  the  colour  of  their 
gowns,  which  were  black,  crimson,  rose,  and  blue.  The 
cloak  and  scarf  of  each  knight  corresponded  with  the  colour 
of  his  mistress.  The  knights  were  dressed  in  Spanish  cos- 
tume, richly  embroidered  in  gold  and  silver,  and  their  plumed 
hats  were  looped  with  pearls  and  diamonds. 

After  the  ladies  were  seated,  while  martial  music  re- 
sounded through  the  hall,  the  twenty-four  knights,  the 
flower  of  the  Austrian  nobility,  made  their  entrance  mounted 
on  splendid  horses,  twenty-four  pages  with  their  banners 
preceding  them,  and  thirty-six  esquires  with  their  shields 
following.  The  whole  cavalcade  advanced  to  the  sovereigns, 
whom  they  saluted  with  their  lances,  then  turning  at  a 
gallop  they  offered  the  same  homage  to  their  mistresses,  who, 

\qx.  7  Mem.   19 


286  MEMOIK  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

rising  from  their  seats,  returned  the  salutation.  After  which 
they  twice  rode  round  the  circle  and  withdrew ;  four  of  them 
immediately  returning  to  begin  the  exercises.  Turks'  and 
Moors'  heads  were  fixed  on  stakes  and  each  knight  passing 
at  a  gallop  bore  one  of  them  away  on  the  point  of  his  sword. 
Some  caught  rings  on  their  lances  ;  others,  armed  with  short 
javelins,  hurled  them  with  great  dexterity  at  the  figure  of  a 
Saracen  which  served  as  target,  and  then  with  another  jave- 
lin hooked  at  the  end  they  picked  up  as  they  passed  at  full 
gallop  the  one  they  had  previously  hurled.  Another  party, 
carrying  sabres,  cut  in  twain  an  apple  suspended  by  a  string, 
and  then,  in  passing  a  second  time,  halved  the  pieces  again. 
This  required  great  dexterity,  and  the  knight  who  excelled 
all  others  was  a  son  of  Prince  Trautmansdorff. 

Finally,  the  whole  cavalcade  of  knights  and  attendants 
appeared  again  and  executed  various  manoeuvres,  ending  in 
a  sort  of  minuet,  which  displayed  to  the  utmost  advantage 
the  intelligence  and  beauty  of  their  horses.  The  prizes  were 
then  awarded  by  the  ladies,  and  the  knights  having  again 
saluted  them  and  the  sovereigns,  rode  once  round  the  circle 
for  the  last  time  and  then  withdrew.  In  a  short  time  they 
returned  to  lead  out  the  ladies,  and  from  this  moment  they 
became  the  sole  object  of  attentions,  for  the  sovereigns 
eclipsed  themselves  by  wearing  dominos  and  mingling  with 
the  crowd  imheeded.  The  supper  was  most  sumptuous, 
thousands  of  candles  sparkled  in  crystal  chandeliers,  and 
minstrels,  accompanying  themselves  on  harps  and  zithers, 
sang  strophes  and  roundelays  to  beauty  and  valour. 

Thus  ended  a  spectacle  the  like  of  which  will  in  all  proba- 
bility never  be  seen  again,  for  the  same  conditions  can  never 
recur.  It  was  a  sight  that  will  not  soon  be  forgotten  by 
those  who  saw  it. 

"  Is  it  true,"  I  said  to  the  Prince  de  Ligne  a  few  days  later. 


I  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  287 

"  that  you  are  the  author  of  a  song  on  the  Congress  which  is 
echoing  in  the  boudoirs  of  even  the  empresses?"  "I  am 
told,"  he  rephed, "  that  the  verses  are  attributed  to  me ;  but 
I  do  not  forget  the  way  in  which  the  Comtesse  de  Boufflers 
rewarded  Tressan's  vanity.  However,  like  other  people,  I 
have  heard  the  song  sung  and  have  sung  it  myself ;  I  have 
even  copied  it  out  in  my  own  handwriting,  and  if  you  like  to 
have  it,  there  it  is." 

LE  CONGRilS  D'AMOUR. 

Apres  une  longue  guerre, 
L'enfant  aile  de  Cythere 
Voulut,  en  donnaiit  la  paix, 
Tenir  a  Vienne  un  congr^s. 
II  convoque  en  diligence 
Les  Dieux  qu'on  pent  reuuir ; 
Et  par  une  contredanse 
On  vit  le  congres  s'ouvrir. 

Au  bureau  de  Terpsichore 

D6s  le  soir,  jusqu'k  I'aurore, 

On  agitait  des  debats 

Sur  IMmportance  d'un  pas. 

Minerve  dit  en  colore  : 

"  Cessez  au  moins  un  instant, 

Si  vous  ne  voulez  pas  f  aii"e 

A  Vienne  un  congrfes  dansant.'" 

Venus  et  la  Jouissance 
Qui  savaient  bien  que  la  danse 
Ajoutait  h  leurs  appas, 
Voulaient  qu'on  ne  cessat  pas. 
"  La  Sagesse  doit  se  taire," 
Dit,  en  riant,  le  Desir; 
A  Vienne  I'unique  affaire 
Est  de  traiter  de  plaisir. 

A  ces  mots  on  recommence, 
Les  Dieux  entrent  en  danse. 


288  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

Mars,  Hercule,  et  Jupiter 
Valseut  uu  nouveau  landeler. 
Soudaiu  Minerve  en  furie 
Dit  en  courroux  :  "  Moi,  je  crois 
Qu'k  ce  congr(5s  la  Folie 
Presiderait  mieux  que  moi." 

"  Taisez-vous,  mademoiselle," 
Lui  dit  I'enfant  infidfele. 
"  Laissez  ces  propos  oiseux, 
Et  livrez-vous  k  nos  jeux: 
Assez  long-temps  sur  la  terre 
Votre  soeur  nous  fit  gemir, 
Laissez-nous  aprfes  la  guerre 
Kespirer  pour  le  plaisir." 

A  I'instant  k  la  barri^re, 
Pour  entrer  dans  la  carriere, 
S'offre  trente  chevaliers, 
Le  front  convert  de  lauriers. 
On  lisait  sur  leurs  banniferes 
Ces  mots  :  loyal  et  Jidel ; 
Ce  sont  les  charges  d'affaires 
Du  congrfes  au  carrousel. 

Enfin  de  tout  on  se  lasse  ; 
Les  bals,  les  jeux,  et  la  chasse 
Avaient  ete  discutes 
Et  resumes  en  traites. 
"  Que  f  erons-nous  davantage  ?  " 
Dit  1' Amour.     "  Donnons  la  pai 
Et  cessons  ce  badinage 
En  terminant  le  congres." 

While  I  read  it  the  prince  was  finishing   one  of  those 

little  notes  which  he  usually  signed  with  a  line ,  saying 

that  it  saved  him  the  trouble  of  a  signature.  "  Like  the 
Arab,"  he  said,  "  let  us  thank  God  who  has  given  us  a  pen 
for  a  tongue  and  paper  for  a  messenger.  These  lines," 
showing  me  a  paper  containing  a  poem  of  some  length, 
"I  am  sending   to   the  Grand-Duchess  of   Oldenburg,  who 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  TRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  289 

laid  me  a  wager  yesterday  I  could  not  write  before  noon 
to-day  a  hundred  lines  on  a  topic  she  would  give  me.  I 
accepted  the  bet  and  have  won  it,  but  I  sat  up  all  night, 
and  I  might  have  added  to  my  note  what  Voltaire  said 
to  Mile.  Clairon,  'I  have  toiled  for  you,  madame,  like  a 
youth  of  twenty.' "  "  Has  the  Duchess  of  Oldenburg,"  1 
said,  "  time  to  think  about  poetry  ?  I  thought  she  was  too 
much  taken  up  with  her  attachment  to  the  Prince-Eoyal 
of  Wiirtemburg."  "  Oh ! "  said  the  prince,  "  that  affair  is 
coming  to  a  happy  conclusion  ;  I  was  told  yesterday  that 
the  dispensation  from  the  Greek  Church  has  arrived  and 
the  marriage  will  soon  be  officially  announced." 

At  this  moment  the  pretty  Titine,  the  Prince  de  Ligne's 
adopted  granddaughter,  came  in  to  say  that  visitors  were 
awaiting  him  below.  "  I  will  come  in  a  few  moments, 
my  dear,"  he  replied ;  then  he  added  to  me :  "  I,  like  others, 
furnish  my  contingent  to  the  Congress  ;  but  people  seem  to 
take  me  for  one  of  the  curiosities  of  the  diplomatic  fair,  and 
I  am  obliged  to  entertain  persons  who  are  not  worth  the 
trouble.  Because  I  am  gay,  I  am  expected  to  fatigue  my- 
self in  amusing  those  who  are  not  so.  However,  like  a 
good  soldier  I  do  not  quit  the  breach,  or  rather  like  a  good 
actor  I  remain  upon  the  stage  till  the  curtain  is  down  ;  and 
though  I  am  not  one  of  the  committee  our  good  emperor 
appointed  to  the  duty  of  making  the  visits  of  the  sovereigns 
as  agreeable  as  possible,  I  do  all  I  can  to  further  that  pur- 
pose. I  am  the  talking  puppet,  and  I  help  the  acting  ones 
to  perform  their  greater  part  in  the  comedy." 

On  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  December  I  was  informed 
that  the  Prince  de  Ligne  was  dangerously  ill,  and  I  hurried 
at  once  to  his  little  house.  There  I  found  his  family,  with 
Dr.  Malfatti,  his  physician,  and  Comte  Golowkin,  a  friend  of 
the  prince,  best  known  by  the  failure  of  his  mission  to  China. 


290  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE, 

[He  was  one  of  the  party  which  accompanied  the  Empress 
Catherine  to  the  Crimea.]  Dr.  Malfatti  blamed  the  prince 
for  having  left  the  court  fete  several  times  without  his  cloak 
to  put  ladies  into  their  carriages ;  by  which  imprudence  he 
had  taken  a  severe  cold  that  developed  erysipelas  in  the  nape 
of  his  neck.  Comte  Golowkin,  who  had  no  more  faith  in 
doctors  than  Molifere,  endeavoured  to  encourage  the  prince, 
who  seemed  to  be  rather  cast  down  by  the  tone  and  words 
of  the  doctor.  "  I  have  always  belonged  to  the  incredulous," 
he  said.  "  Once  when  the  Empress  Catherine  urged  me  to 
take  medical  advice  I  said  to  her :  *  I  have  my  own  method 
of  treatment ;  I  send  for  two  friends  ;  I  physic  Sdgur  and 
bleed  Cobenzl,  and  I  get  well  directly.' "  "  Times  are  changed 
since  then,"  said  the  doctor,  rather  nettled ;  "  that  was  thirty 
years  ago." 

His  three  daughters  never  left  him  for  a  moment.  His 
mind  seemed  full  of  projects;  he  wanted  to  see  his  "dear 
Belceil "  and  the  old  battlefields  once  more  ;  far-off  memories 
came  to  him ;  he  talked  of  the  days  when  he  climbed  the 
knees  of  his  father's  dragoons  and  listened  to  the  tale  of 
their  battles  under  Prince  Eugene.  On  the  night  of  the 
third  day  his  illness  made  terrible  progress,  and  when  Dr. 
Malfatti  came  in  the  morning  he  said :  "  What  ails  me, 
doctor,  is  the  difficulty  of  dying."  Then  he  added :  "  I  have 
always  admired  the  end  of  Petronius  who  died  listening  to 
beautiful  music  and  noble  verse ;  but  I  am  happier  than  he, 
I  die  among  friends,  in  the  arms  of  those  I  love.  If,"  he 
said,  looking  at  his  daughters,  "  I  have  no  strength  to  live, 
I  have  still  enough  to  love  you."  They  burst  into  tears  and 
kissed  his  hands.  "  What  are  you  doing,  children  ? "  he 
cried  gayly ;  "  do  you  take  me  for  a  relic  ?  Wait,  wait,  I 
am  not  a  saint  yet."  This  little  jest  touched  them  more 
than  complaints  or  tears  would  have  done. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  291 

The  Comtesse  Palffy  gave  him  a  drink  ordered  by  the 
doctor,  which  procured  him  several  hours  of  quiet  sleep  from 
which  he  woke  with  all  his  natural  cheerfulness.  His  chil- 
dren began  to  feel  some  hopes.  But  towards  evening  he 
was  seized  by  violent  fever  and  dehrium,  with  moments  of 
apparent  sinking.  At  midnight  his  strength  revived,  and 
sitting  up  in  bed  he  made  a  motion  as  if  to  draw  his  sword ; 
his  large  eyes  flashed,  and  he  cried  out  in  a  strong  voice : 
"  Forward  !  Vive  Maria  Theresa  ! "  Then  he  fell  back  ex- 
hausted and  died  without  struggle  or  suffering. 

The  impression  produced  by  his  death  is  indescribable. 
During  the  few  days  of  his  illness  a  crowd  of  persons 
stationed  themselves  about  his  door  to  get  news  of  him  from 
hour  to  hour.  For  long  years  the  Viennese  had  considered 
him  as  their  particular  property  ;  their  mourning  was  a  true 
grief,  and  they  made  his  funeral  as  imposing  as  the  obsequies 
of  a  sovereign,  although  it  was  not  officially  commanded.  It 
took  place  on  the  13th  of  December,  1814,  with  a  pomp  and 
following  till  then  unknown  for  private  individuals. 

His  company  of  Trabans  in  full  uniform  marched  to  right 
of  the  car ;  the  emperor's  guard  to  left.  A  man-at-arms  on 
horseback  wearing  armour,  with  a  crape  scarf  en  handouliere, 
followed,  holding  his  sword  with  the  point  reversed.  Next 
came  a  horse  caparisoned  with  a  violet  veil  studded  with 
silver  stars.  Behind  the  horse  walked  his  whole  family, 
and  after  them  a  truly  unheard-of  crowd  of  marshals,  gen- 
erals, and  princes  from  all  the  countries  of  Europe ;  among 
whom  we  remarked  the  Prince  of  Lorraine,  Prince  Augustus 
of  Prussia,  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar,  his  intimate  friend, 
Prince  Philippe  of  Hesse,  Prince  Eugfene  de  Beauharnais, 
Princes  Schwarzenburg  and  Ypsilanti,  the  Comtes  CoUoredo, 
Eadetski,  Neipperg,  Giulay,  Ouvaroff,  de  Witt,  the  Due  de 
Eichelieu,  Sir  Sidney  Smith  in  full  admiral's  uniform,  who 


292  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

had  solicited  the  honour  of  commanding  the  last  battery. 
After  these  came  the  whole  garrison  of  Vienna,  infantry  and 
cavalry,  four  batteries  of  six  cannon  each,  and  all  the  Aus- 
trian field-marshals,  who  clung  to  the  honour  of  accompany- 
ing their  comrade  for  the  last  time. 

The  procession  moved  to  the  church  of  the  Ecossais,  where 
the  service  was  performed.  On  the  rampart  (close  to  the 
breach  made  by  the  French)  stood,  with  bared  heads,  the 
Emperor  Alexander  and  the  King  of  Prussia,  who  had  come 
to  render  homage  to  the  old  friend  of  the  Empress  Catherine 
and  Frederick  the  Great. 

Wlien  the  church  was  reached  three  salvos  of  twenty-four 
cannon  thundered  from  the  ramparts.  The  service  over,  the 
same  procession,  but  without  the  cannon,  marched  to  the 
Kalemberg,  where  the  prince  had  asked  to  be  buried  in  a 
little  chapel  which  he  himself  had  built. 


XII. 

SCATTERED  THOUGHTS. 

All  those  who  write  Thoughts  or  Maxims  are  charlatans, 
who  throw  dust  in  people's  eyes.  There  is  notliing  so  easy 
as  to  make  a  book  of  that  kind.  I  mean  to  try.  We  are 
bound  to  nothing  ;  we  can  take  or  leave  the  work  as  we  like. 
That  exactly  suits  me.  But  nearly  all  such  writers  say  trite, 
false,  or  enigmatical  thmgs.  They  ought  to  give  matter  not 
for  dissertation  or  interpretation,  but  for  thought. 

A  maker  of  Eeflections  often  thinks  more  of  being  ap- 
plauded than  of  being  understood,  and  lets  himself  off  in 
little  sparkles  which  dazzle  but  give  no  light.  There  is  a 
sort  of  mechanism  of  definitions,  synonyms,  antitheses,  com- 
parisons, resemblances,  and  differences,  which  makes,  if  we 
want  it,  a  reputation  easily.  Detached  thoughts  are  the 
easiest  of  all  forms  for  a  man  of  intelligence ;  but,  like  most 
easy  things,  they  require  all  the  more  intrinsic  value.  It  is 
in  literature  as  it  is  in  music:  vanquished  difficulties  may 
prevent  our  perceiving  whether  the  performer  is  a  good  musi- 
cian, but  a  simple  air  does  not  allow  us  to  mistake. 

La  Eochefoucauld  has  more  reputation  than  he  deserves ; 
sometimes  he  is  even  wrong  in  being  right ;  his  tone  is  a  lit- 
tle precieux  ;  I  wish  he  had  been  more  a  man  of  the  world. 
But  the  Hotel  de  Kambouillet  spoilt  every  one. 

La  Bruyfere  is  too  vague ;  though  he  seems  to  be  making 
portraits  I  do  not  think  them  good  likenesses.     Besides,  he 


294  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

paints  only  Frenchmen,  never  men  in  general.  We  ought 
to  be  able  to  find  our  own  portrait,  and  say :  "  Oh !  that 
is  I;  that  happened  to  me;  how  true  that  is!"  I  look 
in  vain  for  this  sort  of  faculty  among  makers  of  Eeflections, 
who  mostly  write  in  a  false  key,  because  they  are  not  men 
of  the  world. 

When  Theophrastus  wrote  his  "  Characters  "  he  was  eighty 
years  old.  I  began  tliis  present  work  at  nineteen,  and  I 
think  I  had  already  seen  more  worlds,  countries,  Courts,  and 
armies,  and  had  had  more  experience  of  life  than  he. 

Some  people  reflect  to  write,  others  write  in  order  not  to 
reflect ;  the  latter  are  not  such  fools ;  but  those  that  read 
them  are,  I  think. 

I  am  a  httle  of  the  second  class  ;  but,  to  justify  my  read- 
ers and  myself,  I  ought  to  say  that  if  I  write  (to  occupy  my 
time),  it  is  because  I  am  accustomed  to  meditate,  observe,  and 
withdraw  into  myself ;  and  because  of  this  I  have,  without 
seeking  it,  a  budget  of  thoughts,  of  which  I  want  from  time 
to  time  to  relieve  myself.  I  write  more  from  inspiration 
than  reflection.  There  is  a  world  of  people  to  whom  I  shall 
seem  neither  clear  nor  agreeable  nor  wise.  If  I  do  seem 
so  to  any  it  will  only  be  in  lands  and  with  persons  where, 
and  among  whom,  I  have  chiefly  lived,  who  have  learned 
about  the  same  things  that  I  have  learned,  being  brought  up 
in  the  same  way  and  living  under  the  same  circumstances. 
I  am,  therefore,  doing  very  wrong  to  publish  these  Thoughts, 
for  we  should  not  only  be  heard,  we  ought  also  to  make  our- 
selves understood. 

Man  is  an  instrument  on  which  it  is  well  to  know  how  to 
play.  There  is  almost  one  for  every  individual,  and  we 
should  seek  for  it. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  295 

I  do  not  like  to  hear  the  term  "honest  men"  given  to 
those  who  do  not  steal  because  they  are  rich  or  afraid  of 
being  hanged ;  and  I  declare  that  they  are  worthy  of  being 
hanged  who  do  not  do  all  the  good  they  can,  who  love  them- 
selves at  the  expense  of  others,  who  are  not  capable  of 
enthusiasm,  admiration,  compassion,  friendship.  It  is  usurp- 
ing life  to  limit  ourselves  to  doing  no  harm  ;  the  dead  do  as 
much,  and  exact  nothing  for  it. 

No  one  is  bad  enough  to  feel  ingratitude  from  mere  indif- 
ference ;  but  we  try  so  hard  to  attenuate  benefits,  we  seek  so 
many  motives  for  them,  we  think  we  find  so  much  self- 
interest  in  our  benefactors  that,  little  by  little,  we  become 
ungrateful  without  perceiving  it. 

The  least  dishonest  self-interest  is  that  which,  after  exam- 
ining matters  under  the  two  faces  they  almost  always  wear, 
does  not  take  the  side  that  suits  it  best  until  convinced  that 
the  other  party  will  not  be  too  much  injured.  That  proves 
at  least  that  the  person  has  discussed  the  matter  with  him- 
self ;  and  so  long  as  he  thinks  himself  an  honest  man  he  is 
so  still  to  a  degree. 

Why  is  Justice  always  represented  with  a  sword  and 
scales  ?  I  should  like  to  put  a  veil  upon  her  sometimes.  It 
is  often  justice  not  to  do  justice.  There  is  a  justice  of  sever- 
ity and  a  justice  of  kindness.  If,  after  well  weighing  in 
those  scales,  and  even  lifting  high  that  threatening  blade,  the 
veil  should  hinder  her  from  seeing  all  that  should  be  pun- 
ished, methinks  that  Justice  might  be  more  just.  But  if, 
seeing  all,  she  pardoned,  that  would  be  mercy.  I  do  not 
wish  her  to  pardon  always,  but  I  do  wish  that  her  inquiry 
and  her  judgment  should  not  be  made  with  the  will  to 


296  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

punish.  There  are  so  many  imperceptible  little  shades  to 
distinguish,  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  render  an  account,  but 
which,  nevertheless,  do  allow  of  justifying  an  action,  or  les- 
sening the  penalty.  There  is  much  intelligence  in  kind 
interpretations  ;  they  presuppose  more  penetration  than  there 
is  in  blame ;  for  what  is  best  in  man  is  often  hidden  in  the 
depths  of  his  soul. 

I  think  I  have  said  a  hundred  times  what  I  think  of  in- 
gratitude, which  seems  to  me  a  monster.  But  we  ought 
to  ask  permission  to  render  services,  because  if  benefits 
which  we  do  not  want  from  persons  for  whom  we  do  not 
care  are  to  be  rained  upon  us,  we  are  constrained  to  be  under 
obligation  all  our  lives  to  those  persons  ;  often  without  much 
reason  for  gratitude,  and  often,  too,  without  esteeming  those 
persons  as  individuals.  Can  there  be  a  greater  embarrass- 
ment ?  —  we  must  either  fail  in  gratitude  or  truth. 

The  pleasure  we  receive  from  praise  is  never  equal  to  the 
pain  of  criticism.  We  take  one  for  a  compliment,  the  other 
for  truth. 

We  are  often  deceived  by  confidence,  but  we  deceive 
ourselves  by  distrust.  He  in  whom  we  show  confidence, 
although  it  may  be  little  deserved,  is  flattered,  and  will  try, 
perhaps,  to  be  worthy  of  it ;  but  he  whom  we  distrust  unduly 
will  never  forgive  us.  After  distrusting  persons  we  come  to 
distrust  things.  We  consider  to  be  impossible  that  which  is 
only  difficult.  We  persuade  ourselves  that  even  the  most 
probable  events  will  not  take  place  ;  after  which,  we  distrust 
ourselves  and  are  no  longer  good  for  anything. 

As  soon  as  we  are  enough  considered  in  the  world  to  play 
a  part  in  it  we  are  set  rolling  like  a  ball  that  never  again 
recovers  stillness. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  TRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  297 

The  world  is  itself  a  ball  that  God  sets  rolling.  It  does 
not  always  go  well,  but  it  goes,  and  will  go  ever.  People 
say :  "  If  that  man  who  fills  his  office  so  well  should  die, 
what  could  be  done  ?  "  His  place  is  filled  and  all  goes  well 
as  before.  We  say :  "  If  we  do  not  do  such  a  thing  this 
year,  what  will  happen  ? "  Nothing.  "  If  this  or  that  change 
does  not  take  place  in  the  Administration  the  country  is 
ruined."  Not  at  all,  it  gets  out  of  it.  We  must  do,  and 
make  others  do,  each  man  his  own  duty.  And  if  we  do  not 
do  it,  it  comes  to  pretty  much  the  same  thing. 

The  passions  of  the  vicious  are  put  an  end  to  by  the 
hangman ;  those  of  the  virtuous  are  more  to  be  feared.  We 
have  seen  lovers  commit  crimes,  zealous  ministers  bring  on 
wars,  and  pure,  though  narrow  minds  not  balk  at  revolu- 
tions. Who  says  passion,  even  for  good,  says  danger.  Pas- 
sions are  not  born  in  us.  If  you  ask  :  "  How  can  a  passion 
be  stopped  ? "  I  answer :  "  Why  begin  one  ? "  'T  is  a  senti- 
ment, heated  by  imagination  which  stiffens  itself  against 
all  obstacles;  'tis  an  ephemeral  volcano.  Earely  do  we 
meet  with  those  veritable  conflagrations  of  heart  and  mind 
which  are  really  passions. 

That  which  proves  the  emptiness  of  reputations  is  the 
facility  of  making  dupes.  I  will  bet  that  M.  de  Voltaire 
would  have  been  taken  in  if,  at  a  dinner  at  his  house,  I  had 
previously  prepared  a  fool  to  play  the  part  of  a  man  of 
intellect.  Two  fools  even,  who  had  no  other  cleverness 
than  to  be  each  other's  partners,  could  dupe  the  world. 
That  is  why  one  ought  to  distrust  the  dinners  of  clever  men. 
To  judge  a  man  as  he  is,  we  ought  to  take  him  as  he  jumps 
out  of  bed.  If,  before  he  gathers  together  his  ideas  and 
revives  his  spirits,  he  shows  wit,  conception,  repartee,  force,  oi 
naivety  that  man  is  certainly  a  man  of  intellect. 


298  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

The  thing  that  costs  us  most  in  pleasing  is  to  hide  that 
we  are  bored.  It  is  not  by  being  amusing  that  we  please. 
People  are  not  amused  even  when  they  are  amusing  them- 
selves. The  thing  is  to  make  them  believe  they  are  being 
amused. 

It  is  not  always  necessary  to  be  right  in  order  to  please ; 
there  is  a  way  of  bemg  wrong  that  is  sure  to  succeed.  In 
fact,  there  are  very  agreeable  crookednesses  —  provided  they 
are  not  put  on. 

It  would  be  sad  to  believe  that  the  man  who  comes  near- 
est to  the  animal,  who  foresees  least,  thinks  little,  who  has 
neither  soul,  mind,  education  nor  memory,  nor  hope,  nor  fear, 
should  be  the  least  unhappy  of  human  beings.  What  a 
difference  between  the  tranquil  state  of  a  Bavarian  or  Suabian 
peasant  smoking  and  drinking  round  a  tavern  table  and 
that  of  Prince  Eugfene  after  his  victory  at  Zenta,  or  that  of 
M.  de  Voltaire  at  the  first  representation  of  "  Mdrope  "  !  One 
thing  makes  up  for  another,  and  all  things  can  be  bought  in 
nature.  But  the  nobler  race  of  the  two  is  that  which  makes 
great  outlay  —  it  brings  returns. 

We  ought  to  coerce  our  humour  more,  and  ask  ourselves 
often,  especially  as  we  grow  older,  whether  we  have  not  done 
wrong  to  speak,  and  see,  and  disapprove  as  we  do.  If  we 
paid  more  attention  to  this  there  would  not  be  half  so  many 
grumblers  in  the  world,  especially  among  women.  We  are 
always  dissatisfied.  We  like  to  complain  wherever  we  are. 
We  are  constantly  declaiming  against  some  one  or  some  thing. 
"  What  a  nation  ! "  we  say.  "  What  a  climate  ! "  "  What  an 
age ! "  "  Wliat  a  life  !  "  Is  this  the  congenital  uneasiness 
that  we  feel  within  us,  or  is  it  self-love  ?  Perhaps  both. 
We  are  only  well-off  where  we  are  not ;  and  we  try  to  make 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  299 

ourselves  believe  we  are  worth  more  than  that  which  sur- 
rounds us. 

There  are  fewer  hypocrites  now  than  there  were  in  former 
times  because  we  have  rather  left  behind  us  the  desire  for 
respect. 

The  dog  that  lives  most  with  man  contracts  part  of  his 
defects.  He  is  corrupted  because  man  educates  him;  he  is 
base,  cringing,  fawning,  and  cowardly.  Leave  him  to  his 
instinct  and  he  wiU  be  only  faithful. 

Do  not  thaw  the  frigid  peoples ;  they  have  their  good 
side,  and  what  you  give  them  will  only  spoil  it.  Patience, 
fidelity,  obedience  are  worth  more  than  enthusiasm,  which 
is  never  sure  or  durable ;  for  once  that  it  may  be  well 
directed  it  will  be  so  a  score  of  times  ill.  Better  that  a 
nation  should  have  no  opinions.  The  one  that  has  them  is 
subject  to  storms,  and  if  the  natural  philosopher  does  not 
put  the  lightning-rod  in  the  right  place  the  thunderbolt  will 
fall  on  his  head. 

I  know  no  nation  so  gentle  (but  without  amenity),  better, 
more  trustworthy,  and  less  cruel  than  the  German. 

Enthusiasm  and  fanaticism :  one  belongs  to  grandeur  of 
soul,  the  other  to  pettiness  of  mind ;  one  is  on  fire  for  fame 
and  glory,  the  other  for  a  sect,  a  mode  of  thought,  or  a  man 
who  does  not  deserve  it.  One  is  ardent  in  good  faith ;  the 
other  is  often  prompted  by  secondary  causes.  The  first  leads 
onward,  the  second  is  swept  along.  The  first  was  fired  by 
the  name  of  Liberty  before  its  theory  was  examined  or  its 
results  experienced.  None  but  the  second  would  have  uttered 
the  word  equality.     The  first  derives  from  pride ;  the  second 


300  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

from  self-conceit.  Enthusiasm  which  does  not  give  itself 
time  to  reflect  may  have  crimes  to  repent  of ;  but  fanaticism 
denies  itself  no  crime. 

Great  geniuses  (they  are  called,  I  think,  philosophers),  after 
saying  evil  of  God  whom  they  do  not  know,  say  it  of  sove- 
reigns whom  they  know  but  little  better.  There  are  two 
ways  to  punish  them :  first,  by  not  punishing  them  at  all,  for 
they  are  usually  fools  who  desire  the  celebrity  of  misfortune ; 
secondly,  by  forbidding  the  liberty  of  the  press.  But  it  is 
better  that  governments  should  have  writers  in  their  pay,  to 
foil  and  ridicule  these  pretended  teachers  of  the  human  race, 
who,  in  their  self-claimed  love  for  the  public  welfare,  are 
seeking  nothing  other  than  their  own. 

I  don't  know  how  it  comes  to  pass  that  Free-Masons  are 
at  present  in  the  world.  They  have  much  that  is  high  and 
much  that  is  low.  It  is  interesting  to  see  visionaries  among 
them.  Maybe  they  have  good  reason  to  be  enthusiasts,  for 
I  am  convinced  that  what  is  done  by  the  body  of  Masons 
(of  whom  I  am  one)  is  nothing  in  comparison  to  what  some 
of  them  know  and  are  seeking  to  know.  It  is  not  possible 
that  so  ancient  a  society  should  have  maintained  itself  with- 
out some  vast  meaning  hidden  under  it.  Meantime,  when 
it  consists  merely  of  good  company  (which  is  very  rare)  it 
produces  emulation,  acquaintance,  agreeable  intercourse,  and 
excellent  pleasantry.  Free  Masonry  requires  eloquence, 
memory,  presence  of  mind,  bravery  of  body  and  soul,  gentle- 
ness, patience,  moderation,  sobriety,  prudence,  charity,  gen- 
erosity, love  of  one's  neighbour,  imagination,  compliance, 
gayety. 

Going  back  to  their  origin,  which  is  perhaps  mythical, 
We  shall  find  the   cabalistic  knowledge  of  the   Jews  ;   the 


MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  301 

talent  for  architecture  and  the  rallying  cry  of  the  poor 
Templars ;  the  most  abstract  science  that  exists,  that  of 
Numbers  ;  all  those  sciences  inclosed  by  the  Egyptians  in 
their  pyramids ;  and,  without  doubt.  The  Great  Work,  the 
science  of  Universal  Medicine  (Heahng) ;  with  a  thousand 
other  discoveries  yet  to  make.  Eeverence  it  all,  divine  and 
recognize  these  mysteries  ;  or  else,  see  nothing  in  them  —  as 
you  choose.  The  Eosicrucians  and  pretended  magicians, 
with  their  apparitions,  etc.,  have  spoiled  the  whole  thing; 
which,  from  being  a  laudable  and  interesting  Institution,  has 
been  made  ridiculous  and  dangerous,  and  divided  between 
two  classes,  the  makers  of  dupes  and  the  dupes  themselves. 

We  do  not  pay  enough  attention  to  the  People.  We 
ought  to  think  of  amusing  them  —  and  in  so  doing  amuse 
ourselves.  We  spend  immense  sums  on  suppers  for  two 
hundred  persons,  and  full-dress  balls,  at  which  everybody 
yawns  more  than  they  dance.  If  we  had  violins  in  an  open 
Square  for  the  People,  or  better  still,  out  in  the  country ;  if 
we  gave  them  something  good  to  eat  and  drink,  and  amused 
them  with  a  show,  a  race,  a  fete,  a  masquerade,  something 
which  gives  pleasure  to  look  at,  we  should  certainly  spread 
joy  among  the  masses.  If  we  gave  prizes  and  revived  the 
taste  of  the  Ancients  for  the  innocent  pleasure  of  games, 
fusing  together  the  city  folk  and  the  country  folk,  we  should 
gain  the  blessing  of  thousands  of  joyous  beings.  We  ought 
to  have  public  promenades  well-kept ;  and  a  member  of  the 
government  should  be  charged  with  Pleasure,  as  being  a 
matter  most  interesting  to  the  administration.  Tlie  mixing 
up  of  classes  for  the  time  being,  the  good-will  which  would 
certainly  prevail  in  the  midst  of  it  all,  the  air  of  liberty,  the 
music,  the  songs,  the  joviality  would  break  the  uniformity  of 
dull  lives,  to  which  we  are  now  so  stupidly  habituated. 

Ver.  7  Mem.  20 


302  MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

Pfere  Griffet  was  the  first  to  make  me  know  Frenchmen, 
He  painted  them  to  me  such  as  they  have  now  become. 
Afterwards,  seeing  them  for  myself,  I  remarked  the  brutaUty, 
the  mahgnancy,  the  hardness  of  w^hat  is  called  the  little 
people  —  the  populace.  There  is  no  other  which  has  the 
cruelty  of  childhood  joined  to  that  of  all  the  other  ages. 
The  first  prompts  to  crime  like  that  of  barbarians,  the  second, 
cold-blooded  cruelty,  leads  to  the  abominable  murders  of 
the  present  day. 

It  is  not  always  sad  persons  who  think  the  most  of  sad 
things.  No  one  thinks  more  than  I  do  of  woes  and  death. 
No  one  is  more  expectant  that  evil  things  will  happen. 
But  I  reckon  as  happiness  everything  that  is  not  misfor- 
tune. To  be  prepared  for  evil,  to  be  shocked  by  nothing, 
to  make  one's  self  preparatives,  curatives,  or  preservatives, 
and  to  fear  nothing,  that  is  happiness. 

How  I  detest  persons  who  are  always  seeking  a  selfish 
motive  in  a  fine  action ;  who  cannot  make  themselves  believe 
in  it.  It  is  admirable,  as  I  think,  to  admire.  If  I  find 
something  that  deserves  admiration  I  hasten  to  give  it,  all 
the  more  because  it  seems  to  me  that  I  uplift  my  own 
existence.  I  am  proud  that  one  of  my  fellows  has  done 
a  great  thing ;  there  is  glory  enough  for  all. 

They  cast  ridicule  now-a-days  on  the  spirit  of  chivalry, 
and  laugh  at  those  who  seek  gun-shot  wounds  in  foreign 
lands  ;  also,  they  forget  fast  enough  those  who  have  borne 
them.  Honour  departs.  If  it  were  replaced  by  pleasure, 
that,  at  least,  might  be  a  consolation.  But  no,  people  are 
dulled ;  and  it  comes  from  the  same  source  —  want  of 
energy.    The  pretended  philosophy  of  the  age  is  only  apathy, 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  303 

and  it  is  destructive.  It  is  those  wlio  have  the  loftiest  souls 
who  usually  have  the  most  taste  and  talent  for  enjoyment. 
They  have  impulse.  Others  vegetate,  and  only  burden  the 
earth  with  their  duU  existence. 

What,  or  who,  is  it  that  marks  in  the  world  what  we  call 
energy  ?  It  is  almost  always  he  who  knows  but  the  name 
of  it.  The  world  is  full  of  false  braves;  parhaments  and 
State  assemblies  are  often  false  braves,  who  prod  the 
Court ;  they  advance  because  others  draw  back,  but  they 
recoil  hastily  if  others  advance.  There  are  scarcely  any 
but  jugglers  among  them  now ;  and  reputation,  in  the 
present  day,  is  getting  to  be  a  trick  of  legerdemain. 

The  cry  is  "  To  arms  ! "  I  rush  myself.  I  fly  to  glory. 
I  sacrifice  my  pleasures,  my  tastes,  my  passions,  my  repose 
—  of  which  no  one  feels  the  value  more  than  I.  But, 
through  a  series  of  involuntary  contradictions  to  myself, 
though  swept  along  in  this  wdiirlpool  of  chimeras,  I  do 
not  cease  to  be  an  observer.  Though  an  actor  in  the  scene 
that  is  being  played,  I  take  all  that  is  happening,  and  all 
that  is  done  around  me  as  a  kick  in  an  ant-hill. 

Wliat  else  are  we,  poor  human  beings  ?  How  nmch  space 
do  our  innumerable  armies  occupy  in  Space  ?  If  ballonists 
were  philosophers,  they  would  rise  into  the  air  and  laugh 
with  all  their  hearts  at  our  confused  meauderings  on  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  and  consider  my  comparison  to  an 
ant-hill  a  very  just  one. 

Never  say  "  the  policy  "  of  Prussia,  England,  France,  Spain, 
Holland,  etc.  It  is  private  interests,  ambition,  revenge,  or 
the  more  or  less  logic  or  temper  in  the  man  or  the 
woman  who  wields  the  influence,  which  causes  the  course  of 


304  MEMOIR  OF   THE   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE. 

conduct  that  is  laid  to  the  account  of  some  mysterious  and 
profound  diplomatic  calculation.  It  is  thus  that  personal 
egotism  has  almost  always  lighted  the  flames  of  war.  The 
Place  des  Victoires,  where  the  nations  were  seen  enchained, 
was  the  cause  of  one  war.  The  gloves  of  the  Duchess  of 
Marlborough  played  a  great  part  in  another.  The  jokes  of 
the  King  of  Prussia  on  a  sovereign  lady,  a  mistress,  a  great 
and  a  little  minister,  brought  about  the  league  that  so  nearly 
flung  him  from  his  throne. 

We  must  not  make  a  monster  of  that  finest  of  evils,  War. 
I  have  seen  so  many  noble  traits  of  humanity,  so  much  good 
to  repair  a  little  evil,  that  it  is  not  possible  for  me  to  look 
upon  war  as  altogether  an  abomination,  provided  they  neither 
pillage  nor  burn  and  no  other  harm  is  done  than  to  kill  off 
those  who  would  perish  a  few  years  later  less  gloriously.  I 
have  seen  my  grenadiers  give  their  bread  and  their  kreutzers 
to  poor  families  in  a  village  that  an  accident  (foreign  to  the 
war)  had  reduced  to  ashes.  I  have  blessed  my  fate  in  com- 
manding such  men.  I  have  seen  the  hussars  return  the 
purses  of  prisoners  and  open  their  own  to  them.  It  seems 
as  if  the  soul  were  exalted.  The  more  courage  a  man  has, 
the  more  he  feels.  In  all  things  it  is  emotion  that  is  sub- 
lime. 

Fame  is  sometimes  a  courtesan  of  the  lowest  type,  who 
attaches  lierself  in  passing  to  those  who  are  not  thinking  of 
her.  They  are  surprised  by  the  favours  they  receive  without 
doing  anything  to  obtain  them.  At  the  end  of  a  generation 
they  are  believed  to  be  superior  to  those  who  deserved  such 
favours  and  never  obtained  them.  It  is  unfortunate  for 
virtue  that  so  many  noble  actions  of  obscure  persons  remain 
unknown,  and  that  we  cannot  go  back  to  the  hidden  authors 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  305 

of  great  results.  We  might  perhaps  be  able  to  disinter  a 
few ;  it  would  be  a  novel  way  of  writing  history.  We  could 
relate  the  great  effects  and  portrr.y  those  who  pass  for  hav- 
ing produced  them,  and  then,  side  by  side,  make  known 
the  hidden  causes  and  the  ignored  agents.  This  would  be 
subterranean  history,  if  I  may  so  express  it. 

Better  not  to  have  glory  in  times  and  countries  where  few 
people  know  what  glory  is.  It  will  fade  at  once.  Three 
classes  of  persons  contribute  to  this :  enviers,  detractors,  and 
non-appreciators.  See  the  times  of  the  Great  Condd  in 
France,  and  those  of  Prince  Eugene  in  our  own  country. 
As  there  were  other  heroes  and  glory  enough  for  all,  no  one 
disputed  theirs.  That  age  held  honour  high.  Sorrow  to 
him  who  wants  his  laurels  among  those  who  have  none  ;  he 
will  be  crushed.  What  consoles  us  for  not  winning  fame  is 
that  the  greatest  men  are  often  denied  it.  I  have  heard  it 
said  that  Frederick,  King  of  Prussia,  the  great  Frederick, 
was  a  coward ! 

It  is  often  for  want  of  being  enlightened  about  their  duties 
that  persons  fail  in  them.  This  is  why  there  are  so  many 
unconscious  criminals,  and  the  reason  why  narrow  and 
limited  persons  are  so  dangerous ;  the  impulsion  of  character 
leads  them  astray. 

We  must  come  into  the  world  general,  painter,  poet,  or 
musician.  When  one  of  our  colonels  promoted  by  the  Court 
said  to  Guido  Stahremberg :  "  The  emperor  has  made  me  a 
general,"  "  I  defy  him,"  he  replied,  "  he  appointed  you  a  gen- 
eral, and  that  is  all." 

M.  de  Turenne  was  well  aware  that  the  gazette  would  say 
more  than  he  did  about  the  battle  of  the  Dunes  when  ha 


306  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

wrote :  "  The  enemy  came  to  us  and  was  beaten ;  I  am  rather 
tired  and  will  bid  you  good  evening."  It  is  very  easy  to  be 
modest  like  that.  It  does  not  belong  to  everybody  to  be 
modest.  Modesty  is  either  vanity  or  silliness  when  real 
merit  is  not  behind  it. 

An  eccentric  man  is  often  a  pretty  good  devil.  His 
eccentricity  is  founded  on  the  certainty  he  feels  about  his 
own  character.  That  feeling  makes  him  indifferent  to  con- 
ventional manners.  He  may  have  plenty  of  faults,  but  he 
certainly  will  never  be  false  or  cringing. 

Why  are  there  so  few  natural  persons  in  the  world  ? 
There  are  many  who,  being  capable  of  true  sentiments, 
make  themselves  factitious  ones  to  try  if  in  that  way  they 
can  produce  more  effect.  They  are  well  punished  by  their 
pains  and  their  restraints.  They  lose  by  calculating  a  suc- 
cess that  they  might  have  won  by  nature. 

Philanthropy,  or  rather  philanthropomania  is  a  singular 
invention.  Do  we  need  a  Greek  word,  a  sect,  assemblies, 
and  works  in  order  to  love  our  neighbour  ? 

It  is  thought  that  quizzing  renders  a  person  ridiculous. 
Yes,  so  it  does  ;  but  the  person  is  he  who  uses  it ;  the 
more  wits  the  quizzed  one  has,  the  less  will  he  seem  to  think 
that  vulgar  style  could  be  used  against  him.  There  are 
many  things  we  ought  to  baffle  by  not  observing  them. 

Those  who  are  least  suspected  of  philosophy  are  often 
those  who  have  the  most  of  it.  True  philosophy  is  pleasure ; 
it  should  enter  into  our  duties.  Fulfil  those,  and  then 
breathe   only  joy  ;  enjoy  all  things,  games,  fetes,  theatres, 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  307 

good  living,  good  society,  folly,  if  you  will,  and  even  follies. 
But  always  with  good  taste,  even  in  our  errors.  There  are 
some  people  whom  all  things  become  because  they  have 
grace  and  tact.  We  feel  that  they  are  better  than  their 
faults,  and  that  they  know  as  much  about  themselves  as 
their  censors;  we  therefore  await  their  return  to  better 
things. 

We  say  nothing  new,  we  think  nothing  new.  The  same 
conversations  come  over  and  over  again.  We  know  before- 
hand the  replies  that  will  be  made.  I  am  annoyed  with 
myself  in  seeing  the  little  circle  of  thoughts  in  which  I 
turn.  It  is  enough  to  make  one  dislike  one's  self ;  and  I 
can  imagine  a  person  taking  a  resolution  never  to  speak 
again. 

It  is  the  laziness  of  men  of  intellect  that  I  like.  But 
lazy  fools  are  like  the  valets  in  an  antechamber ;  they  soon 
become  liars,  slanderers,  eavesdroppers,  and  bullies. 

I  do  not  like  learned  persons  unless  they  are  so  without 
intending  it  or  knowing  it.  There  is  nothing  easier  than  to 
become  one.  Shut  yourself  up  at  home  for  six  months  if 
you  want  to  know,  and  you  will  know.  It  is  better  to  have 
imagination  than  memory.  What,  after  all,  are  these  ambu- 
lating dictionaries  ?  Learned  persons  know  words  only.  I 
never  see  them  learned  in  things.  The  best  book  is  the 
world. 

Is  it  not  cruel  that  we  know  nearly  everything  except 
that  which  we  most  need  to  know  ?  We  know  the  history 
of  plants,  animals,  stars,  the  globe,  but  not  that  of  man. 

In  order  to  behave  well,  be  careful  not  to  reflect ;  follow 
the  impulse  of   your   instinct.     Every   man   has   his   own> 


308  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PKINCE   DE  EIGNE. 

Seize  it  on  the  fly ;  let  it  decide  your  course.     It  is  through 
inspiration  that  you  will  do  what  you  ought  to  do. 

Passions  depend  on  the  life  we  live  and  the  position  we 
have  taken.  If  Charles  XII.  had  been  born  obscurely  what 
would  he  have  done  with  his  passion  for  war  ? 

A  flash  of  genius  is  almost  a  flash  of  madness.  If  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  Charles  XII.,  Eugene,  and  Cond^  had  been 
truly  wise  we  should  never  have  heard  of  them  as  we  have. 

I  love  kindness  ;  but  do  not  push  it  so  far  that  you  are 
forced  to  become  harsh.  This  happens  to  governments, 
tutors,  and  masters  in  relation  to  servants. 

I  do  not  believe  in  tutors,  schools,  or  convents,  but  I  do 
believe  in  nurses  ;  if  they  take  care  of  the  health  and  the 
gayety  of  the  little  creature  intrusted  to  them,  they  wiU 
make  his  happiness  and  chat  of  all  dependent  on  him. 

There  are  differences  between  a  dogged  man,  a  self-willed 
man  \tetu  et  entete],  a  firm  man,  and  a  man  of  character. 
The  first  maintains,  right  or  wrong,  what  he  thinks,  and 
listens  to  nothing ;  the  second  does  what  he  likes  without 
looking  back  to  see  if  he  is  right  or  not ;  the  third,  without 
the  doggedness  of  the  first  or  the  wilfulness  of  the  second, 
chooses  his  side  in  advance  of  the  event,  whatever  it  may 
be ;  and  the  fourth  is  all  his  life  what  the  third  may  not 
always  be  —  and  he  undertakes  more. 

We  change  our  sentiments  because  our  health  and  our 
sensations  have  changed. 

Imagination  has  more  charms  in  writing  than  in  speaking. 
Its  great  wings  must  fold  on  entering  a  salon.     If  too  vivid. 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  309 

too  ardent,  it  must  be  checked ;  too  much  fire  chills  a  con- 
versation, too  much  wit  is  wounding,  too  much  intellect 
humiliates.  To  please,  we  must  know  how  to  come  down 
to  the  level  of  the  greater  number. 

Of  Myself  —  perhaps  this  is  scarcely  worth  speaking  of. 
I  am  about  like  the  rest  of  the  world,  —  better  than  some 
think,  less  good  than  others  think.  Content  with  myself 
in  great  things,  as  to  which  I  defy  people  not  to  do  me 
justice,  I  have  perhaps  been  too  careless  of  the  judgment 
of  others  in  little  things.  "  Must  a  man's  reputation  de- 
pend on  a  quantity  of  persons  who  have  none  ? "  I  pity  or 
I  joke  at  those  who  judge  me  askew.  I  laugh  when  I  see 
I  am  not  understood  as  to  certain  essential  parts  of  my 
nature.  Well,  what  can  I  do  better  than  laugh  if  persons 
whom  I  like  reproach  me  for  want  of  feeling,  and  those 
whom  I  have  taken  persevering  pains  to  oblige  accuse  me 
of  levity  ?  In  spite  of  it  all,  I  make  some  one  ungratefui 
from  time  to  time.  I  do  not  know  if  I  do  good,  but,  at 
least,  I  never  do  or  say  or  think  evil. 

I  defy  sorrow  for  myself.  If  those  I  love  have  sorrows 
I  share  them  ;  but  then  their  pleasures  are  mine.  I  have 
them  for  myself,  I  have  them  for  others,  I  have  them  for 
all  the  world.  Save  for  that  sensibility  only  —  to  which 
the  compensation  of  Good  outweighs  all  Evil  —  I  care  Httle 
for  anything ;  I  feel  the  vanity  of  nearly  everything ;  I  see 
so  plainly  the  nothingness  of  all  things  that  I  have  no  merit 
in  being  neither  malignant  nor  vain.  I  am  too  easy-going 
to  be  the  first,  and  too  proud  to  be  the  second.  I  forgive 
or  I  forget ;  and  if  friends  are  rare  I  make  up  by  quality 
for  quantity.  My  soldiers,  for  instance ;  I  find  in  men  of 
war  the  most  attachment. 

Either  I  see  all  things  in  good,  or,  I  put  all  things   at 


310  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE. 

their  worst.  If  something  fortunate  happens  to  me  I 
have  enjoyed  it  in  advance  and  I  enjoy  it  after.  If  I 
meet  with  some  little  misfortune  I  say  to  myself  that 
I  expected  it  would  have  been  greater,  or  else  that  it  cannot 
last;  I  have  always  the  hope  of  a  change,  and  hope  in 
itself  is  a  good.  If  troubles  continued  I  should  see  less 
regret  in  quitting  life,  for  this  world  is  only  a  passage. 
If  my  situation  grew  better  I  should  feel  that  happiness 
the  deeper. 

I  give  light  food  to  my  mind,  not  too  strong  because  the 
mind  is  as  susceptible  as  the  stomach  to  indigestion.  Phi- 
losophy, literature,  and  verses,  —  that  is  what  I  need.  I  am 
too  old  to  educate  myself  any  longer,  and  not  old  enough 
to  educate  others ;  besides,  that  is  not  my  vocation.  That 
which  seems  the  most  frivolous  is  often  the  most  essential. 
I  listen  because  I  know  that  that  gives  pleasure ;  I  never 
care  to  make  myself  listened  to,  because  I  know  that  that 
humiliates.  If  I  am  with  those  who  bore  me,  I  think  of 
something  else  without  their  perceiving  it ;  when  persons 
are  worth  the  trouble,  I  do  all  I  can  to  please  them. 

If  I  am  obliged  to  reflect,  and  some  painful  thought  comes 
to  me  about  the  loss  of  my  best  days,  I  say  to  myself: 
"  When  the  very  few  years  of  active  life  I  have  still  to  spend 
in  the  pleasantest  of  ways  have  all  gone  by,  I  shall  enjoy 
the  peace  my  soul  will  have,  and  my  successes  in  my  gardens 
and  country  works  will  compensate  for  all  the  rest."  But 
I  do  not  give  myself  the  time  to  reflect ;  I  am  busy ;  or 
else  I  drop  insensibly  into  gentle  idleness,  thence  to  sweet 
reverie,  and  so  to  sleep  and  dreams. 

But  there  is  a  way,  a  very  hard  way  of  becoming  superior 
to  events.  It  is  to  buy  it  by  a  great  sorrow.  If  the  soul  is 
wrung  by  the  loss  of  all  we  hold  most  dear  I  defy  all  other 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE.  311 

griefs  to  touch  it.     Fortune  lost,  ruin  total,  persecution   in- 
justice, all  is  insignificant. 

When  any  one  tells  you  a  piece  of  news  bet  a  hundred 
louis  it  is  not  true ;  you  will  make  your  fortune  in  a 
month ;  for  once  that  you  lose,  you  will  win  twenty  times. 
People  will  teU  you  they  have  seen,  read,  heard  —  bet  on. 
In  the  first  place,  people  fib  immensely ;  next,  they  want  the 
appearance  of  knowing  everything  ;  besides  which,  they  see, 
read,  and  listen  badly,  and  are  deceived,  or  deceive  them- 
selves. Therefore  go  on  betting  and  you  wiU  be  the  better 
for  it. 

It  is  easy  to  be  agreeable  when  all  things  encourage  it. 
But  if  we  can  show  wit  wdien  thwarted  or  wearied  in  society 
we  have  it  reaUy. 

"Why  do  we  not  say  to  ourselves,  "  I  am  happy "  ?  We 
ought  to  take  two  days  in  the  week  for  saying,  each  to  him- 
self :  "  Let  me  look  at  my  life.  I  am  well  in  health.  The 
ten  or  twelve  I  love  almost  wholly,  love  me.  I  am  rich.  I 
play  a  part  in  life.  I  have  consideration,  people  love  me ; 
people  esteem  me.  Such  and  such  a  happiness  will  be 
mine.  I  enjoy  this  and  also  that,  and  before  long  the  other." 
Unless  we  make  this  conscious  recapitulation  we  get  Uase 
on  our  happy  condition ;  we  change ;  we  are  less  content ; 
we  regret  the  regiment,  or  the  government  that  we  have  no 
longer.  If  we  had  said  all  along,  "  How  happy  I  am  to 
have  all  I  have,"  we  should  have  it  still,  for  we  should  still 
feel  its  blessing. 

Nothing  annoys  me  more  than  to  meet  persons  who  think 
there   is  an  underhand   meaning   to   everything.     Indepen- 


312  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

dently  of  a  class  I  abhor  —  namely,  those  who  diminish  the 
glory  of  a  fine  act  by  imagining  selfish  motives,  —  persons 
who  see  some  other  thing  in  what  is  said  and  what  is  done, 
a  reason,  a  malice,  a  satire,  or  what  such  fools  call  quizzing, 
a  word  and  a  thing  both  vulgar,  —  such  persons,  I  say,  seem 
to  me  odious. 

In  order  not  to  lose  your  head  when  the  house  takes  fire, 
say  to  yourself  sometimes  what  you  would  do  and  what 
orders  you  would  give  when  it  happened.  If  you  are  sur- 
rounded in  war  or  tormented  at  Court,  do  not  wait  till  your 
enemies  crush  you,  but  prepare  with  self-possession  to  do 
what  you  cannot  do  without  self-possession,  namely,  get  out 
of  the  difficulty.  I  should  like  to  see  a  school  for  Presence 
of  j\Iind,  with  professors  for  coolness,  foresight,  and  resource, 
in  place  of  law  and  history,  which  any  one  can  read  without 
their  aid.  Such  professors  of  theory  and  practice  could  soon 
put  self-possession  into  their  pupils'  minds  by  having  it 
themselves,  and  might  succeed  in  making  excellent  heads 
prepared  for  all  emergencies. 

I  know  sensible  people  who  believe  in  a  little  genie,  a 
guardian  demon  of  a  good  kind ;  and  certain  pretty  women 
have  assured  me  that  all  they  have  done  that  was  best  in 
life  was  done  by  the  advice  of  their  Sylph.  I  cannot 
flatter  myself  that  I  have  a  Sylphide,  but  what  is  very 
certain  is  that  all  the  good  ideas  I  have  ever  had  in  my 
life  and  the  good  decisions  that  I  have  taken  (sometimes 
under  very  embarrassing  circumstances)  have  invariably 
come  to  me  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  I  wake  for 
a  few  moments.  Sylph  or  Sylphide,  I  can  conceive  of  such 
a  being.  My  sleep  has  been  peaceful  because  my  soul  was 
calm  when  I  went  to  bed.     This  influx  of  calmness  ought 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  313 

to  give  our  miuds  the  ability  to  judge  well.  I  advise  others, 
because  I  have  had  such  good  out  of  it,  to  take  couusel  with 
themselves  only  at  their  wakiug. 

The  only  thing  in  which  we  have  made  an  advance  is  in 
knowing  better  than  they  did  in  the  days  of  Socrates  that  we 
know  nothing.  Information  and  education  have  been  pushed 
so  far  that  our  greater  knowledge  of  the  for  and  against  has, 
necessarily,  increased  doubt. 

Laziness  is  so  completely  the  instinct  of  animals  that  they 
are  always  lying  dow^n  unless  hunger  or  fear  compels  them 
to  move.     They  are  like  the  Turks,  who  never  walk. 

Wliat  will  Posterity  say,  and  what  idea  will  a  youth  who 
studies  history  get  on  reading  these  headings  of  the  present 
day :  "  Progress  of  the  Human  Mind,"  "  Kegeneration  of 
Mankind,"  "  System  of  Universal  Happiness,"  "  Fraternity  or 
Death,"  "  Terror  the  Order  of  the  Day,"  "  List  of  the  Guillo- 
tined," "  Report  of  the  Killed,  Wounded,  and  Dead  in  Hos- 
pitals "  ?  With  reason  and,  above  all,  good  faith,  what 
anguish  might  not  have  been  spared  to  the  poor  human 
race  !  Eead,  if  you  can  without  shuddering,  the  origin  of 
the  infernal  Troubles  which  for  eight  years  have  made  earth 
itself  quiver  and  blush ;  you  will  see  there  that  tlie  first 
sparks  of  the  conflagration  came  from  the  pride,  the  folly, 
and  the  ignorance  of  a  few  unworthy  individuals. 

Is  there  not  something  more  than  love  and  friendship? 
It  seems  to  me  that  something  may  exist.  But  I  know  very 
w^ell  it  has  no  name.  As  for  friendship,  it  is  plain  that  that 
is  a  cold,  cold  sentiment  —  we  are  often  bored  by  friends. 
As  for  love,  it  is  so  warm,  so  warm,  that  it  passes  quickly  if 


314  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  EIGNE. 

successful;  quicker  still,  if  it  is  not.  What  then  is  this 
state  of  tenderness,  so  superior  to  all  else,  yet  resembling 
nothing  ?  All  that  is  not  she  we  love,  all  places  where  she 
is  not  become  a  weariness ;  with  her,  the  soul  is  ever  smihng, 
if  that  expression  is  allowed  me.  This  alone  can  be  called 
passion ;  and  I  think  it  must  be  that  which  comes  but  once 
in  hfe.  'Tis  sympathy,  the  mingling  of  atoms,  the  blood 
magnetic  —  yes,  true  magnetism.  It  is  all  we  want.  It  is 
the  greatest  happiness. 

If  you  are  dissatisfied  with  marriage  do  not  blame  the 
sacrament ;  blame  the  barbarous  fathers  and  the  false  inter- 
preters of  God  who  prevent  true  hearts  from  meeting  in  this 
world,  and  in  the  next  if  they  do  not  love  here  their  unfaith- 
ful husbands.  Parents,  Priests,  Notaries!  if  the  name  of 
God  does  not  move  you,  let  that  of  humanity  do  so.  You 
are  about  to  unite  two  unhappy  persons,  who  will  create 
others  as  unhappy.  The  health,  the  gayety  of  their  children 
is  at  stake  ;  and  they  themselves  will  seek  outside  of  mar- 
riage a  consolation  for  the  desolation  within. 

It  is  because  I  love  decency  that  I  detest  what  is  called 
such.  See  how  marriages  are  arranged.  A  young  girl  is 
taught  that  she  must  not  look  a  man  in  the  face,  nor  answer 
him,  nor  ever  know  how  she  came  into  the  world.  Sud- 
denly one  day  a  notary  in  black  appears,  and  a  man  in  a 
coat  embroidered  on  every  seam.  Her  parents  say  to  her : 
"  This  is  your  husband,  you  are  to  pass  the  night  with  mon- 
sieur." Such  are  the  auspices  under  which  marriage  begins 
for  her.  Chastity  departs;  what  chastity  will  henceforth 
keep  that  woman  from  granting  out  of  feeling  to  him  she 
loves  what  she  has  been  forced  to  grant  from  duty  to  him 
she  does  not  love  ?  Thus  it  is  that  the  most  sacred  bond  of 
the  heart  is  profaned  by  parents  and  notaries  ;  the  first  call 


MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE  DE  LIGNE.  315 

it  union,  the  second  a  contract ;  both  have  created  indecency 
and  the  principle  of  corruption ;  neither  have  considered 
love. 

See  that  young  victim  of  religion  and  avarice  launched 
into  the  world  and  its  dangers.  The  more  the  graces  pre- 
sided at  her  birth,  the  more  she  attracts  desire  on  the  part  of 
men,  and  envy  on  the  part  of  M^omeu.  She  is  about  to  be 
judged  severely.  If  she  has  a  fancy  she  is  lost ;  if  she  has 
a  passion,  she  is  wretched ;  if  she  has  neither  she  is  called 
insipid  —  unless,  indeed,  she  has  a  really  superior  mind.  If 
she  has  neither  a  good  nor  a  bad  reputation  she  is  soon  neg- 
lected by  her  husband,  who  is  vexed  that  she  is  not  the 
fashion,  but  would,  nevertheless,  be  more  so  if  she  were. 
What  vengeance  is  there  for  that  poor  little  woman  ?  Ill- 
humour  to  her  husband  ?  —  he  will  avoid  her  and  never  see 
her.  Shall  she  take  a  lover  ?  —  they  will  lock  her  up.  The 
wonder  is  that  there  should  be  so  many  virtuous  women  in 
the  world. 

That  which  justifies  the  weakness  of  women  in  respect  to 
us  is  that  men  demand  it  of  them.  Moreover  they  have 
nothing  to  do.  Why  not  occupy  them  ?  They  sit  at  home 
with  their  arms  folded.  They  know  their  reign  is  short,  and 
they  put  their  little  moment  to  profit.  Why  not  employ 
them  in  negotiations,  as  they  are  physically  too  feeble  for 
war  ?  They  have  more  self-love  than  men,  and  they  would 
employ  it  in  persuading  sovereigns  and  ministers.  ]\Ime.  de 
Konigsmark  was  an  ambassador.  An  embassy  would  be  for 
their  declining  life.  Work  in  the  offices  would  occupy  their 
tempestuous  years  until  they  were  twenty-five.  They  have 
secrecy  (when  they  are  interested  in  anything),  shrewdness, 
wiliness,  ambition;  what  more  is  needed  to  succeed  in 
diplomacy  ? 


316  MEMOIR  OF  THE  PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

In  vain  shall  I  do  justice  to  women's  sagacity,  sensibilities, 
charms,  and  even  virtues  ;  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  we 
have  spoilt  them  by  calling  them  queens  of  society  and  the 
best  and  most  beautiful  part  of  creation.  The  first  term  is 
vague,  the  other  is  true  when  they  are  gentle,  not  reserved, 
not  exacting,  and  concerned  only  in  making  the  happiness  of 
husband  and  friends.  But  the  habit  of  beuig  flattered 
makes  them  cry  out  against  all  works  in  which  they  are 
discussed.  Mercy,  my  ladies,  for  mine !  I  will  flatter  you 
one  after  tlie  other,  if  you  wish  it,  but  as  a  body,  you  must 
accept  from  me  a  few  truths,  though  a  trifle  severe. 

Wliat  can  a  feeble  sex  do,  if  it  has  not  been  trained  in 
youth  to  a  knowledge  of  morals  [^exercS  d,  la  morale]  when 
it  desires  to  follow  that  path  without  a  rule,  when  it  seeks  to 
rise  above  itself,  and  yet  has  not  the  strength  to  know  enough 
to  compare  and  judge  ;  a  sex  which  never  travels,  and  has 
seen  little,  and  read  badly,  which  mistakes  imagination  for 
education,  rigidity  for  virtue,  the  desire  to  know  for  knowl- 
edge, and  obstinacy  in  an  unwise  course  for  character  ?  The 
education  of  women,  the  want  of  proper  direction  of  their 
reading,  the  bad  choice  of  the  books  they  do  read,  often 
full  of  very  false  philosophy,  all  this  does  injustice  to  women 
who  think  and  desire  knowledge,  and  often  puts  them  at  a 
disadvantage  with  other  women  who  have  less  mind  than 
themselves. 

After  having  said,  read,  written,  and  heard  much  of 
women,  what  is  the  outcome  of  good  and  evil  to  be  put  to 
their  account  —  without  seeking  to  be  either  spicy  or  gal- 
lant in  our  reply  ? 

Here  is  mine,  in  good  faith.  They  are  more  amiable  than 
we,  more  genial,  more  feeling,  more  spiritual ;  they  are  worth 


MEMOIR   OF  Til  10   PRINCE   DE   EIGNE.  317 

more  than  we  are.  All  the  imperfections  with  which  we 
reproach  them  cannot  Jo  the  harm  that  one  of  our  defects 
can  do ;  and  besides,  as  I  think  I  have  said  elsewhere,  we 
are  the  cause  of  them  by  our  despotism,  injustice,  and  self- 
love.  Look  at  their  reigns  when  women  are  on  the  throne. 
It  is  false  that  men  govern  them.  They  have  too  much 
ambition,  which  once  in  a  way  they  are  able  to  satisfy,  to 
share  their  authority.  I  have  seen  this  twice,  and  closer  than 
any  other  man,  and  I  can  be  believed.  Look  at  a  dowager, 
or  an  heiress  in  her  castle ;  she  does  more  good  than  her 
predecessor,  the  deceased  seigneur.  I  am  not  speaking  now 
of  distinguished  women,  who  by  the  loftiness  of  their  souls, 
the  spirituality  of  their  minds,  the  refinement  of  their  or- 
ganizations, and  their  perseverance  in  educating  themselves, 
rise  higher  than  the  most  distinguished  men.  But  follow 
through  the  course  of  their  lives  one  hundred  persons  of 
each  sex  and  you  will  find  twenty  per  cent  more  virtues  in 
the  one  than  in  the  other. 

We  moralists  are  not  any  better  than  those  who  read  us 
We  belong  to  that  class  between  foster-mother  and  maid, 
called,  I  believe,  child's  nurse.  She  is  often  as  ignorant 
as  those  she  holds  in  leading-strings.  Still,  one  would  fain 
hold  the  leading-strings  of  the  world  (which  is  only  a  big 
child),  to  keep  it  from  falling,  burning  itself,  and  above  all, 
from  crying,  screaming,  tearing  and  spoiling  things. 

That  which  alone  suffices  to  make  us  believe  in  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul  is  the  injustice  of  the  strong.  How 
is  it  possible  that  the  divine  Being  who  has  made  such 
glorious  things  could  be  so  able,  universal,  and  great  with- 
out being  just  ?   And  how  can  He  be  just  if  so  many  w^orthy 

sick  and  disabled  persons  have  no  other  state  of  good  to 
Ver.  7  Mfin.  21 


318  MEMOIR  OF  THE   PRINCE   DE  LIGNE. 

hope  for  ?  It  may  be  that  the  obtaining  of  that  state  de- 
pends on  bearing  with  patience  the  one  in  which  they 
suffer. 

There  is  this  to  be  said  on  the  prosperity  of  evil  minds, 
that  perhaps  it  is  only  outward.  The  rich  are  robbed,  the 
gluttons  are  sickly,  the  libertines  exhausted,  and  slanderers 
fear  that  the  evil  they  say  may  be  brought  home  to  them. 

Putting  things  at  their  worst,  I  should  say  to  sceptics : 
It  is  as  difficult  not  to  believe  as  to  believe.  AYhat  does  it 
cost  to  believe  ?  All  is  supernatural.  Nothing  can  be  ex- 
plained. Let  us  repair  the  wrong  we  see  in  the  world  by 
doing  good  to  the  sorrowful,  not  permitting  that  any  should 
be  unhappy ;  consoling  the  afflicted,  humiliating  no  one, 
honouring  old  age,  defending  the  orphans,  consecrating  our 
voices  to  the  defence  of  oppressed  innocence,  sacrificing  our 
lives  to  our  sovereign  and  friends,  acknowledging  benefits, 
forgetting  wrongs,  enlightening  others  who  neglect  their 
duties  for  want  of  knowing  them,  shedding  abroad  upon 
society  that  security,  that  amenity  of  morals  and  manners 
that  make  the  comfort  of  this  life  and  the  inward  peace  of 
the  soul  which  scepticism  is  endeavouring  to  take  from  us  — 
what  is  all  this,  I  ask,  but  the  Gospel,  pure  and  simple  ? 
Can  there  be  a  better  morality,  with  more  philosophy  and 
more  policy  than  that  ? 

Assured  of  eternal  happiness  in  the  other  life  we  can  let 
the  moment  come  to  go  there  without  either  desiring  it  or 
fearing  it.  Exempt  from  all  anxiety  in  that  respect,  we 
must  be  happier  in  this  life  ;  there  will  be  no  evil  humours, 
no  illness,  nothing  to  trouble  the  general  harmony ;  if  all 
are  advancing  towards  Good  there  can  be  no  evil  men ;  there 
will  be  no  wars  ;  each  will  cultivate  his  own  blessings  and 
increase  his  wealth  to  share  it. 


MEMOIR   OF  THE   PRINCE   DE  LIGNE.  319 

If  any  one  inclines  to  shake  your  little  system  of  Morality 
by  asking  if  you  are  sure  your  soul  is  immortal,  answer: 
"  What  is  that  to  me  ? "  If  it  is,  I  see,  through  the  practising 
of  my  Law,  the  heavens  opening  around  me ;  hut  I  do  not 
choose  to  be  told  that  those  who  do  not  believe  in  immortal- 
ity will  therefore  commit  all  crimes  ;  I  declare  those  who 
say  that  as  wicked  as  if  they  themselves  committed  them. 
It  seems  to  me  that  virtue  brings  its  own  reward  in  this  life. 
The  soul  is  in  hell  if,  looking  inward,  we  are  conscious  of 
crime.  See  the  faces  of  jealous,  avaricious,  cowardly,  and 
ambitious  persons ;  there  alone  is  a  w^arning  greater  than 
Gehenna,  the  pagan's  Tartarus,  the  molten  lead  of  Christian- 
ity, and  all  the  pots  of  boiling  oil  in  the  world. 

The  doctrine  of  Zoroaster,  revived  among  Christians  in 
Manichffiism,  is  an  error  far  more  reasonable  than  many 
others.  Eather  than  believe  in  nothing,  liking  the  marvellous, 
needing  it,  it  is  believable  that  celestial,  aerial,  and  terres- 
trial Spirits  should  direct  the  Universe ;  and  so  perhaps  the 
influence  of  planets  is  believable.  If  the  latter  influence 
were  true  we  should  be  brave  under  Mars,  gallant  under 
Venus,  eloquent  with  Mercury,  tender  and  delicate  under 
Virgo,  just  under  Libra,  strong  with  the  Lion,  adroit  with 
Sagittarius,  capable  of  friendship  with  the  Gemuii,  discreet 
under  Pisces  ;  but  how  about  Aries,  Taurus,  Capricornus,  and 
Cancer  ?  Should  we  have  to  consult  them  all  before  attend- 
ing to  our  business  or  marrying  ?  Better  renounce  each,  and 
live  in  sloth  and  celibacy. 

Let  the  ancient  splendour  of  our  religion  be  revived.  The 
primitive  Church  has  left  us  its  vestments  and  ceremonies, 
imposing  when  intelligent  persons  employ  them.  This  it 
was  that  made  the  charm  of  the  old  mythologies  ;  those 
religions  were  in  the  hands  of  poets ;  Homei',  Pythagoras, 


320  MEMOIR   OF   THE   PRINCE  DE   LIGNE. 

Virgil,  Ovid,  Citsar,  Cato,  Cicero,  were  the  doctors  of  their 
Sorbonne.  They  uplifted  or  comforted  the  soul,  promised 
the  hero  the  rank  of  demi-god,  the  philosopher  another  body 
young  and  fresh,  and  a  state  of  happiness  after  death,  and  so 
forth.  But  what  do  our  ignoramuses  who  have  managed  to 
get  a  parish  among  us  tell  you  ?  "  liead  a  few  tiresome 
books,  mutter  a  few  ill-written  words,  be  present  at  such  an 
hour  in  an  unhealthy,  ill-built  Temple,  and  you  will  be  can- 
onized," —  not  one  word  of  morality,  or  the  practice  of 
Good.  They  say  to  you :  "  Fast,  pray,  sin,  and  come  and 
tell  us  about  it."  Yes,  no  doubt,  observe  the  rules  of  our 
religion,  but  also  read  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  and  the 
"  Imitation  of  Jesus  Christ,"  one  of  the  greatest  books  of  the 
world.  If  you  are  not  convinced  by  it  be  persuaded ;  and  if 
you  are  not  persuaded  make  believe  that  you  are,  and  pray 
that  you  may  be. 

To  abase  the  soul,  narrow  the  mind,  and  mortify  the 
body  was  never  the  intention  of  a  God  so  powerful,  so  noble, 
so  magnificent.  Not  to  recognize  Him  proves  the  impover- 
ishment or  the  parching  of  ideas.  If  what  we  learn  of 
Jesus  Christ  seems  to  us  more  reasonable,  more  true  than 
probable,  the  answer  is  that  he  is  easy  to  follow  if  inter- 
preted rightly.  There  is  no  danger  in  believing,  but  much 
perhaps  in  doubting.  Mystery  for  mystery,  shice  mystery 
there  is  in  every  way,  better  let  ourselves  go  to  tliat  which 
by  means  of  a  good  morality  and  certain  ordained  practices 
comforts  the  soul  and  sustains  it  in  the  last  moments  of 
life. 


INDEX  TO   VOL.   IL 


Alexander  I.  (The  Emperor),  2G5 ; 
his  friendship  fur  Friuce  Eugene  de 
Beauharnais,  280,  281  ;  is  present  at 
funeral  of  Prince  de  Ligne,  292. 

Antoinette  (Queen  Marie),  25  ;  her 
letter  to  her  mother  relating  to 
Prince  Louis  de  Ligne,  205. 

Aktois  (Charles  Conite  d'),at  Worms 
with  a  body  of  einicjres,  the  Prince 
de  Ligne's  advice  to  tiiem,  148,  149. 

Beauharnais  (Prince  Eugene  de),  265, 
280,  281,  291. 

BoxAPARTE  (The  Emperor  Napoleon), 
Prince  de  Ligne's  opinion  of  him, 
237;  letter  concerning  iiim,  237-241. 

Broglie  (Achille-Charles-Lconce- Vic- 
tor, Due  de),  his  ratiier  un.sym})a- 
thetic  account  of  the  I'rince  de 
Ligne,  259,  2C0. 

Casanova  (Giovanni),  called  de  Stein- 
galt,  portrait,  sketcli  of  his  liistory 
and  last  years,  160-172. 

Cathehine  II.  of  Russia  (The  Em- 
press), her  letters  inviting  I'rince 
de  Ligne  to  accompany  her  to  the 
Crimea,  2-8 ;  lier  triumphal  journey 
to  Taurica,  8-44  ;  "  Ta  Majeste,"  l.'j ; 
opinions  on  other  sovereigns,  20  ;  her 
poems,  21-22  ;  how  she  entered  upon 
the  Turkish  war,  46-51  ;  her  letter 
to  the  prince  on  his  leaving  her  ser- 
•vice,  90;  on  the  taking  of  Oczakow, 
98-100;  letter  to  Prince  de  Ligne, 
153,  154  ;  to  Prince  Charles  de  Ligne 
conferring  cross  of  Saint  George,  194  ; 
letter  to  Prince  de  Lisae  on  death  of 


Prince  Charles,  197,  198;  her  faith- 
ful friendship,  209  ;  letter  to  her  from 
Prince  de  Ligne,  211 ;  her  reply,  212; 
anecdotes  of  her,  213  ;  letter  from 
Prince  de  Ligne,  213,  214  ;  her  reply 
and  last  letter,  215  ;  her  death,  216  ; 
the  prince's  portrait  of  her,  216-229. 

CoBENZL  (Conite).  in  tlie  Crimea,  1-lG. 

CoiGNY  (Mine,  la  Marquise  dej,  the 
Prince  de  Ligne's  letters  to  her  from 
tlie  Crimea,  8-44. 

Cri.mea  (The),  Taurica,  the  famous 
triumphal  progress  of  Catherine  II., 
8-44. 

Dam  as  (Corate  Roger  de),  his  portrait, 
83,  249. 

Fitzherbert  (Mr.),  Lord  St.  Helens, 
in  the  Crimea,  1,  16-21. 

Henry  of  Prussia  (Prince),  25. 

Hortense  (Queen),  performance  of  her 
poems  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna, 
277,  278 ;  tribute  to  her  by  Prince 
Leopold  of  Saxe-Coburg,  278,  279. 

IsABEY  (Jean-Baptiste),  paints  the  jior- 
trait  of  Napoleon's  son  at  Schou- 
brunn,  270. 

Joseph  II.  (Tlie  Emperor),  in  the 
Crimea,  1,  13,  16,  19;  opinions,  20; 
"  What  the  devil  should  we  do  with 
Constantinople  ?  "  21;  how  he  was  per- 
suaded into  the  Turkish  war,  46-51  ; 
his  letter  announcing  Prince  Charles 
de  Ligne's  valour  at  Sabacz,  71  ;  mis- 


322 


INDEX. 


understanding  with  Prince  de  Ligne, 
118;  letter  to  him  from  the  prince, 
121,  122;  his  death,  122,  123;  his 
character,  124-127  ;  his  letter  on  his 
death-bed  to  Marc'chal  de  Lacy,  127  ; 
his  portrait,  128-132. 

Lacy  (Mare'chal  de),  letter  to  him  from 
Prince  de  Ligne  after  taking  of  Bel 
grade,  48-120. 

La  Garde  (The  Comte  de),  his  picture 
of  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  and  of  the 
prince  in  his  last  days,  Chapter  XI., 
261-292;  tiie  tournament,  283-28G ; 
the  Prince  de  Ligne's  last  illness  and 
death,  289-292. 

Leopold  IL  (The  Emperor),  139,  141. 

Ligne  (The  Mare'chal  Prince  de),  let- 
ters to  him  from  Empress  Catherine 
about  journey  to  Crimea,  2-8  ;  his 
letters  to  the  Marquise  de  Coigny 
from  the  Crimea,  8-44  ;  his  desire  for 
war,  16 ;  a  dream  at  Parthenizza, 
23-33  ;  Tartar  fidelity,  33  ;  prophecy 
of  revolution,  42  ;  takes  service  with 
Russia,  45  ;  account  of  how  the  Turk- 
ish war  was  brought  on,  46-58  ;  let- 
ters to  Joseph  IL,  58,  59,  61-06 ; 
letters  to  Comte  de  Segur,  60-6G ; 
Potemkin's  "  Israelowsky  regiment," 
68 ;  Jews,  what  they  are,  69 ;  letters 
to  Segur,  71,  79-85  ;  letters  to  Joseph 
IL,  68,  72-79,  85-89  ;  letter  to  Cath- 
erine II.  taking  leave,  89  ;  her  reply, 
90 ;  letter  to  Prince  Kaunitz,  90  ; 
portrait  of  Prince  of  Nassau-Siegen, 
79,80;  of  Prince  Potemkin,  81,  82; 
of  Roger  de  Damas,  83 ;  what  the 
Russian  soldier  is,  84 ;  what  the 
Turks  are,  84 ;  emotion  at  receiving 
news  of  his  son's  valour,  71-73  ; 
leaves  the  Russian  service,  88-90 ; 
letter  to  Prince  Kaunitz,  92  ;  to  Comte 
de  Segur,  93-98 ;  capture  of  Ocza- 
kow,  letter  from  Empress  Catherine, 
98-100  ;  spends  the  winter  in  Vienna, 
101  ;  campaign  of  the  siege  of  Bel- 
grade, 102-120;  letter  to  Comte  de 
Segur,  105  ;  letter  from  and  to  Neigh- 
bour Mustapha,  106,  107;  the  siege 


and  taking  of  Belgrade,  109-114;  ob- 
tains the  cross  of  Maria  Theresa, 
114-118;  letter  to  Comte  de  Se'gur, 
114;  the  Turks,  what  are  they? 
115-118;  misunderstanding  with 
Joseph  IL,  118;  letter  to  Mare'chal 
de  i.acy,  118-120;  letter  to  Joseph  IL, 
121-123  ;  death  of  Joseph  II.  and  end 
of  the  prince's  military  service,  123  ; 
letter  to  Catherine  II.  on  the  death 
of  Joseph  IL,  124-127;  portrait  of 
Joseidi  IL,  128-132;  returns  to  Low 
Countries,  speech  to  States-General, 
133-137  ;  amusing  calumny,  l.i7, 138  ; 
luckless  misdirection  of  letters,  138 ; 
remark  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick 
about  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  139 ; 
alienation  from  the  next  two  em- 
perors, their  letters,  139-141;  part- 
ing from  Mare'chal  Loudon,  142 ; 
his  view  of  causes  of  French  Revolu- 
tion, 143;  letter  to  "Louis  Segur," 
143-147 ;  defence  of  him,  147 ;  the 
emigres  on  the  frontier,  his  advice  to 
the  Comte  d'Artois,  148  ;  the  repub- 
lican French  army,  149-152  ;  letter 
from  the  Empress  Catherine,  153, 
154  ;  his  reply,  155  ;  conversation  with 
King  of  Sweden,  156;  the  prince  the 
innocent  cause  of  the  massacres  at 
Lyons,  157;  portrait  of  Giovanni 
Casanova  and  sketch  of  his  history, 
160-172  ;  the  Prince  de  Ligne's  family 
history,  173;  parentage  and  titles,  174; 
relations  M'ith  his  children,  175,  176  ; 
letter  to  his  son,  179,  180;  relations 
with  his  wife,  184;  family  life  at 
Beloeil,  185  ;  his  poems,  185  ;  his 
printing-press,  1 86  ;  poem  to  Helene, 
186,  187  ;  letter  to  his  son  replying  to 
requests,  189,  190;  letter  to  his  sou 
after  Sabacz,  192  ;  joy  at  return  of  son 
after  Ismail,  195;  obelisk  to  son  at 
Belail,  195;  his  anguish  at  his  son's 
death,  197;  letter  from  the  empress  on 
that  sorrow,  197,  198;  Bela-il  lost, 
but  protected  during  first  occupation 
of  Belgium  by  the  French,  202;  de- 
scription of  Prince  de  Ligne  by  the 
husband  of  his  granddaughter,  204 : 


INDEX. 


323 


Bpla'il  restored  by  Napoleon  in  1804 
to  the  prince's  second  son  Louis,  'JOG ; 
letter  to  former  secretary  replying  to 
inquiries  about  his  lite  in  Vienna, 
207,  208  ;  his  "  Kefuge,"  208  ;  his 
Works,  209  ;  letter  to  the  empress, 
210,  211;  her  reply,  212;  letter  to 
empress  complaining  of  her  silence, 
213,  214  ;  her  reply  and  last  letter, 
215;  her  death,  216;  the  prince's 
portrait  of  her,  216-229;  last  years 
in  Vienna,  230 ;  causes  of  his  non- 
employment  iu  the  wars  against 
Napoleon,  230-233  ;  received  by  Fred- 
erick William  III.  at  Potsdam  and 
Berlin,  234  ;  Queen  Louisa  of  Prussia, 
a  brief  portrait  of  her,  234 ;  conver- 
sation with  tlie  King  of  Bavaria,  23.5  ; 
with  Frederick  William,  235-237  ; 
judgment  on  Bonaparte,  237  ;  letter 
concerning  him,  238,  239 ;  conversa- 
tion witli  Talleyrand,  239,  241  ;  por- 
trait of  Paul  I.,  241-243  ;  reminiscence 
of  the  Courts  he  has  seen,  243-245 ; 
last  reflections,  245-247  ;  the  picture  of 
his  last  years  continued  from  this  point 
by  others,  248  ;  description  of  him  by 
Comte  Ouvaroff,  248-258  ;  by  the 
Due  de  Broglie,  259,  260;  by  the 
Comte  de  La  Garde  during  the  Con- 
gress of  Vienna,  261-292 ;  intercourse 
with  Mme.  de  Staiil,  250-252 ;  com- 
mands the  evolutions  of  the  wooden 
soldiers  of  Napoleon's  son,  270;  de- 
scription of  his  "  Kefuge,"  276 ;  his 
poem  on  the  "  Congres  d' Amour," 
287,  288  ;  his  illne.ss,  death,  and 
funeral,  289-292  ;  his  "  Scattered 
Thoughts,"  293-320. 
LiGNE  (Prince  Charles  de),  his  gal- 
lantry at  Sabacz  and  Ismail,  46  ; 
Joseph  IL  announces  his  valour  at 
Sabacz  and  gives  him  the  cross  of 
Maria  Theresa,  71  ;  liis  own  letter, 
72 ;  negotiations  for  his  marriage, 
176-182;  his  coldness,  the  cause  of 
it,  182;  his  marriage,  183;  his  col- 
lection of  drawings  from  old  masters, 
187;  interest  iu  balloons,  188;  takes 
his   wife  to    Paris,   letter    from   his 


father  in  reply  to  requests,  189,  190; 
goes  to  the  army  in  Moldavia,  191 ; 
his  wife  leaves  him  and  her  child,  192  ; 
letter  to  him  from  his  father  after 
Sabacz,  192;  receives  the  cross  of 
Saint-George  for  gallantry  at  Ismail, 
letter  from  the  empress,  194  ;  returns 
to  Austrian  army,  196  ;  is  proxy  for 
Emperor  Francis  as  Comte  of  Hai- 
uault,  196  ;  his  last  charge  and  death, 
197;  despair  of  his  father  and  letter 
from  empress,  197,  198;  the  tragedy 
of  the  young  prince's  life,  199-201  ; 
his  monogram,  201. 

Eigne  (Prince  Louis  Eugl'ne  de),  175; 
enters  the  French  army  in  childhood, 
204  ;  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  revo- 
lution enters  the  Austrian  army,  205  ; 
his  distinguished  career,  205,  206 ; 
his  father  cedes  Bela'il  to  him,  206. 

Eigne  (Princesse  Frau(;oise  Xaviere 
de  Lichtenstein  de),  175;  her  letter 
to  the  Princesse  de  Eigne-Luxem- 
bourg  on  her  son's  marriage,  181 ; 
her  character,  184;  description  (f 
her  by  the  husband  of  her  grand- 
daughter, 204. 

Eigne  (Princesse  Christine  de),  Prin- 
cesse Clary,  175,  176,  184,  202,  200. 

Eigne  (Princesse  P'uphe'mie  de),  Coni- 
tesse  Palffy,  175,  202,  260,  291. 

Ekjne  (Princesse  Flore  de),  Baronne 
von  Spiegel,  175,  176,  202,  260. 

Eigne  (Princesse  Sidonie  de),  192  ; 
letter  to  her  mother,  202 ;  lier  mar- 
riage, 203. 

EiGNE-LuxEMBOtiRG  (Princei.se  de), 
176;  makes  the  marriage  of  Prince 
Charles,  176-183. 

Loudon  (Mare'chal)  commands  before 
Belgrade,  108-118;  his  letter  to 
Prince  de  Eigne,  113,  114;  suffer- 
ings and  death  of,  142. 

Massalska  (Princesse  Helene),  her 
family  and  education,  176,  177;  ne- 
gotiations for  her  marriage  to  Prince 
Charles  de  Eigne,  178,  181,  182; 
marriage,  1 83  ;  obtains  a  house  in 
Tails,   result  of  the  life  there,  19Q 


324 


INDEX. 


191  ;  abandons  her  husband  and 
child,  192  ;  marries  Comte  Vincent 
Potocki  uu  Prince  Charles'  death, 
arranges  a  marriage  of  her  daughter 
Sidonie  de  Ligue  with  her  husband's 
son  Francis  Futocki,  203. 

Narischkin  (Prince),  grand  equerry, 
spins  a  top  with  results,  15. 

NASSAn-SiEGEN  ( PriucB  de),  in  the 
Crimea,  15,  69,  77;  his  portrait,  79, 
80,  86. 

OcvAROFF  (Comte),  his  description  of 
the  Prince  de  I>igne  in  Vienna,  248- 
258 ;  curious  incorrectness  of  his 
judgment  on  the  prince's  writings, 
253  ;  an  evocation,  255-258. 

Parma  (The  Prince  of).  King  of  Rome, 
Napoleon's  son,  269-272. 

Paul  I.  of  Russia  (The  Emperor), 
241-243. 

Paul  Jones  taken  into  the  Russian 
service  as  major-general  and  vice- 
admiral,  the  prince's  opinion  of  him, 
70,  78,  87. 

Poland  (Stanislas  Poniatowski,  King 
of),  in  the  Crimea,  14,  20,  69. 

PoTEMKiN  (Grigori,  Prince),  manages 
the  empress's  journey  to  the  Cri- 
mea, 1,  10,  14-44;  how  he  inveigled 
Joseph  II.  into  the  Turkish  war,  46- 
51  ;  his  conduct  of  the  war,  52-100, 
68,  70,  73,  74,  79;  his  portrait,  81- 
83  ;  storms  and  takes  Oczakow, 
98-100. 

Potocki  (Comte  Francis),  marries 
Sidonie,  daughter  of  Prince  Charles 
de  Ligue;  his  letter  describing  Prince 
and  Princesse  de  Ligne  and  their 
family,  204. 

Pozzo  Di  BoRGO  (Carlo  Andrea, 
Comte),  at  a  dinner  at  Prince  Talley- 
rand's in  Vienna,  282. 

Prussia  (Frederick  William  III.,  King 
of),  receives  tlie  Prince  de  Ligne  at 


Potsdam,  234,  235,  237  ;  is  present  at 
the  Prince  de  Ligue's  funeral,  292. 
Prussia    (Queen    Louisa    of),   a   brief 
portrait  of  her,  235. 

RoMANZow  (Mare'chal),  68,  70,  86,  87. 

Saxe-Coburg  (Prince  Leopold  of),  his 
tribute  to  the  goodness  and  cliarm 
of  Queen  Hortense,  278,  279. 

Saxe-Teschen  (Duke  Albert  of),  138, 
139  ;  the  prince's  judgment  on  him, 
233. 

Segur  (Comte  Louis  Philippe  de),  in 
the  Crimea,  1,  12,  16,  19;  letters 
from  Prince  de  Ligne  to,  60,  66,  68, 
69,71-73;  79-84;  93-98;  105;  114- 
118;  mediates  between  king  and 
queen  and  revolutionists,  the  prince's 
letter  to  him,  143-147;  the  prince's 
defence  of  him,  147. 

SiAiiL-HoLSTEiN  (Mme.  de),  her  per- 
sonal intercourse  with  Prince  de 
Ligne  in   Vienna,  250-252. 

Talleyrand  (Prince  de),  meets  the 
Prince  de  Ligne  in  Dresden  in  1807, 
239-241 ;  a  dinner  at  his  house  in 
Vienna,  281. 

Vienna  (The  Congress  of),  261-292. 

Wallons  (Tlie),  ((?!(;//c<'' Walloons  ;  ori- 
gin of  the  name  unknown,  78,  79 ; 
gallant  conduct  of  a  captain  of 
Wallons,  95 ;  their  behaviour  at 
Maxen,  97;  and  in  Berlin,  104;  sad 
fate  of  a  captain,  167,  168;  who  the 
Wallons  were,  223 ;  their  battle- 
song,  224. 

Works  (The),  of  the  Prince  de  Ligue, 
39-43. 

WiJRTEMBERG  (Princc  Louis  of),  poor 
and  generous,  117. 

Ypsilanti  (Prince  Alexander),  273, 
274. 


DATE  DUE 

OCT  2  7 

981 

GAYLORD 

PRINTEOINU.S.A. 

UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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